At least 24 dead as ‘unprecedented’ wildfires rage across South Korea

At least 24 people have been killed and more than 20 injured as wildfires rage in multiple areas across South Korea’s southeastern region where thousands of firefighters and soldiers are struggling to control rapidly expanding blazes.

More than a dozen fires broke out over the weekend, forcing some 27,000 people to urgently evacuate. The Korea Forest Service said firefighters were fighting at least five active wildfires nationwide as of Wednesday morning.

The death toll jumped to 24 on Wednesday as wind-driven flames tore through neighbourhoods and razed an ancient temple, officials said.

Among those killed was a pilot of a firefighting helicopter who died when his aircraft crashed in a mountain area in Uiseong.

South Korea’s official Yonhap news agency said four victims, who were found dead on a road late on Tuesday night, burned to death after they tried to escape the fires but their car overturned.

The wildfires began late on Friday in Sancheong county in Northern Gyeongsang province before spreading to neighbouring Uiseong county – located about 180km (111 miles) southeast of the capital Seoul – and have advanced into Andong, Cheongsong, Yeongyang, and Yeongdeok counties.

Officials in Andong and other southeastern cities and towns have ordered residents to evacuate as firefighters struggle to contain the fires, which have burned more than 17,000 hectares (42,000 acres) of forest and destroyed hundreds of structures, including the more than 1,000-year-old Gounsa temple in Uiseong.

National treasures stored at the Buddhist temple, which was built in 681, were moved to safety in other areas of the country, Yonhap said.

Authorities also issued an emergency alert for Hahoe Folk Village – a UNESCO-listed World Heritage Site popular with tourists in Andong county – as the blaze drew closer.

“The wildfire is currently about 8km (4.9 miles) from Hahoe Village,” an official at the Korea Heritage Service said, adding that fire trucks and dozens of firefighters are on standby and spraying water around the premise to prevent the fire from spreading.

Lee Byung-doo, a forest disaster expert at the country’s National Institute of Forest Science, said the fire in Uiseong exhibited “unimaginable” scale and speed.

South Korea’s acting President Han Duck-soo said the raging fires had exceeded all prediction models for such a disaster.

“Wildfires burning for a fifth consecutive day in Ulsan and the Gyeongsang region are causing unprecedented damage,” Han said. The fires are “developing in a way that is exceeding both existing prediction models and earlier expectations”, he said.

According to Yonhap, the South Korean military has deployed an estimated 5,000 service members and sent 146 helicopters to help fight the fires alongside thousands of firefighters.

Approximately 500 inmates at a prison have also been transferred to other facilities outside the fire danger zone.