Wildfire in South Korea Forces 500 Residents to Evacuate as Rain Helps Fight Flames
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – More than 500 people evacuated their homes in South Korea’s eastern coastal city of Gangneung as strong winds and dry weather fanned a wildfire on Tuesday, officials said, but fears of a further spread eased as rain helped firefighters battle the blaze.
The fire, which started at around 8.30am local time on Tuesday in Gangneung, was mostly extinguished as of 4.30pm, after consuming 170 hectares of land and prompting the evacuation of some 550 residents in the city of more than 200,000 people, the Korea Forest Service said, Reuters reported.
The fire injured three people, including two firefighters, and destroyed dozens of buildings, the national forestry agency said. A body was found later in the afternoon in a burnt house in the affected area, Yonhap news agency reported, citing the Gangneung Police Station.
Firefighting crews had struggled to put out the fast-moving blaze due to strong winds, but rain then tamped it down by the afternoon.
The fire appears to have started after strong winds blew a tree onto live overhead power cables, igniting flames, Gangwon province’s Governor Kim Jin-tae said.
Photos and footage circulating on social media showed fires razing forests and fields, and buildings engulfed by smoke.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol ordered officials to mobilize all available resources to put out the fire as soon as possible and quickly evacuate nearby residents to minimize casualties, his office said.
