S. Korea authorities deploy choppers, troops to battle wildfire

South Korean authorities mentioned Monday they might deploy dozens of helicopters and hundreds of firefighters and troopers as they wrestle to manage a number of wildfires within the southeast, which have been burning for days.

4 folks have been killed to date, with officers warning that excessive winds and rising temperatures have been hindering efforts to place out the blazes.

In Uiseong, almost 7,000 hectares (17,000 acres) of land has been affected and round 600 folks evacuated, Lim Sang-seop, head of the Korea Forest Service, instructed a press briefing.

“A complete of 57 wildfire preventing helicopters are to be deployed to extinguish the hearth,” he mentioned, including that greater than 2,600 hearth preventing personnel—together with troopers—can be mobilized “to reply with all their would possibly”.

The fireplace had been partly contained however was nonetheless burning as of Monday afternoon.

The forest company has issued “extreme” hearth warnings, its highest degree, in a number of places, together with North and South Gyeongsang provinces, Busan and Daejeon.

A significant wildfire claimed 4 lives over the weekend in Sancheong county, in South Gyeongsang province, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) southeast of Seoul.

That fireside was additionally partly contained by Monday—however nonetheless burning.

The federal government declared a state of emergency within the affected areas, citing “the in depth injury brought on by simultaneous wildfires throughout the nation”.

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who was reinstated as performing president earlier Monday, visited the Central Catastrophe and Security Countermeasures Headquarters, urging authorities to work collectively “till the wildfires are fully extinguished”.

“It’s a actually heartbreaking incident,” he mentioned, including that he would meet folks affected by the fires later Monday.

The chief of the principle opposition Democratic Social gathering, Lee Jae-myung, urged authorities to “mobilize all means at their disposal to rapidly and safely suppress the fires” and take additional measures to forestall any extra wildfires.

Some kinds of excessive climate have a well-established hyperlink with local weather change, equivalent to warmth waves or heavy rainfall.

Different phenomena equivalent to forest fires, droughts, snowstorms and tropical storms may end up from a mixture of advanced elements.

© 2025 AFP