Large forest fire in South Gyeongsang Province extinguished within 213 hours of outbreak

All of the large flames in the Sancheong and Hadong forest fires in South Gyeongsang Province were extinguished by the afternoon of the 30th, 213 hours after they broke out.
Lim Sang-seop, head of the Korea Forest Service, said at an emergency press conference held at the scene in the afternoon that "all major fires in the Sancheong and Hadong areas have been put out."
According to the Korea Forest Service's Central Accident Response Headquarters, the forest fire that broke out in Sancheong County, South Gyeongsang Province, at 3:28 p.m. on the 21st of this month has continued for 10 days. The affected area of the forest fire so far is 11 km2 in Sancheong.
The provisional total was 1,858 hectares, including 58 hectares in the southern part of the country and 700 hectares in Hadong, which is the size of 2,602 soccer fields.
Since the start of the fire on the 21st, the affected area has expanded to more than 100 hectares, and the fire has spread to Sancheong County.
The command system was immediately transferred from the governor to the governor of Gyeongnam. After that, the area affected by the forest fire exceeded 1,000 hectares on the 23rd, and the Director General of the Korea Forest Service became the unified commander on the scene.
Judging that the forest fire in Uiseong County, North Gyeongsang Province was more serious, the Commissioner of the Korea Forest Service took on on-site command in Uiseong, while delegating the forest fires in Sancheong and Hadong, South Gyeongsang Province, to the Gyeongnam branch in accordance with relevant regulations.
The fire was put out under the jurisdiction of Gyeongnam-do Province, with the cooperation of the Korea Forest Service, Sancheong and Hadong counties, fire department, police, Ministry of National Defense, Meteorological Administration, National Heritage Administration, National Park Service, and forestry association.
The Forest Service Commissioner took over the unified command of the Sancheong and Hadong mountain fire sites again at 5 p.m. on the 28th, after the main fires in seven cities and counties in North Gyeongsang Province had been put out. The site where the fire first broke out is at the foot of Mt. Jiri.
When the forest fire broke out on the 21st of this month, strong winds of up to 13.4 meters per second were blowing at the site, causing it to spread very quickly. On the 22nd, the fire spread to another ridge and reached Hadong.
The reason why the fire was put out so late was because of the thick layer of live tree litter in the area. The HYERI helicopter dropped a large amount of water on the fire, but the fire was under the layer of litter.
In addition, the fire site was located on a high mountain 900m above sea level, there was no forest road to access the site, and the thick layer of broadleaf litter and dense forestry prevented the movement of firefighters.
The thick brush and grass made it difficult to deploy personnel to the scene, and the haze, a mixture of smoke and fog from the forest fires, also made it difficult for HYERI Copter to operate.
On that day, Minister Lim said, "I would like to thank the Gyeongnam-do, Sancheong-Hadong-gun, fire department, police, and others who worked hard to extinguish the wildfires.
"We would like to thank the Ministry of National Defense, the Meteorological Administration, the National Heritage Agency, the National Parks Corporation, the Forestry Association, and many other organizations and organizations," he said. "Above all, we would like to thank the Hyeri helicopter maintenance crew, the mountain firefighting team, the public firefighting team, and the other firefighters at the scene.
"We thank all those who worked on the forest fires for their dedicated efforts," he said. At the same time, he said, "As the main sources of fire are put out, we will shift to a system of local governments taking the lead in putting out remaining fires," and "The spring forest fire countermeasure period will begin."
"We will do our best to prevent and respond to wildfires together with local governments and related agencies across the country until May, which is the deadline for the fire prevention and response," he added. Meanwhile, the number of casualties from the wildfires has reached 14, including four deaths and 10 moderate and minor injuries.
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