ANDONG: Wildfires in South Korea are now the largest and deadliest on record, having burned more forest and killed more people than any previous blaze, officials said on Thursday, as the death toll hit 28.
More than a dozen fires broke out over the weekend, scorching wide swathes of the southeast and forcing around 37,000 people to flee, with the fire cutting off roads and downing communications lines as residents escaped in panic.
"This wildfire has once again exposed the harsh reality of a climate crisis unlike anything we've experienced before," Lee Han-kyung, disaster and safety division chief said.
Wildfires doubled in size on Thursday from a day earlier, as authorities called the blazes.
More than 38,000 hectares (93,900 acres) have been charred or were still burning in the largest of the fires that began in the central Uiseong county, making it the biggest single forest fire in South Korea's history. The previous record was 24,000 hectares (59,000 acres) in a March 2000 fire.
"We are nationally in a critical situation with numerous casualties because of the unprecedented rapid spread of forest fires," Acting President Han Duck-soo told a government response meeting.
The military has released stocks of aviation fuel to help keep firefighting helicopters flying to douse flames across mountainous regions in the southeast of the country where fires have been burning now for nearly a week.
More than 120 helicopters have been deployed in three regions battling the blazes, the safety ministry said. South Korea relies on helicopters to fight forest fires because of its mountainous terrain. A helicopter pilot died on Wednesday after crashing while trying to tackle a blaze.
The wildfires that originated in Uiseong have been moving rapidly eastward, spreading almost to the coast, carried by gusty winds and with dry conditions aggravating the situation.
The Uiseong fire began spreading quickly on Wednesday, reaching the coastal county of Yeongdeok about 50 km (30 miles) away in just 12 hours, said Won Myung-soo, director of satellite imagery analysis for the national forestry service.
On Thursday evening, it rained briefly in some parts of the affected region. Precipitation of around one millimetre was too little to extinguish the main fire, but will help contain it, officials said.
About the same amount of rain is expected for some areas on Friday.
Experts have said the Uiseong fire showed extremely unusual spread in terms of its scale and speed, and that climate change is expected to make wildfires more frequent and deadly globally.
Higher temperatures amplified by human-caused climate change contributed to the existing seasonally dry conditions, "turning dry landscapes into dangerous fire fuel" in the region, the Climate Central group, an independent body made up of scientists and researchers, said in a report.
The wildfires have carved a trail of devastation through an area equivalent to about half of Singapore, ravaging everything in their path including historic temples and homes in the mountainous forest regions of North Gyeongsang province.
Teams of firefighters are on standby to protect the UNESCO World Heritage sites of Hahoe Village and the Byeongsan Confucian Academy in the city of Andong, if a blaze jumps the stream that flows around them.
The picturesque folk village has traditional Korean houses, many with thatched roofs, while the Confucian academy dates back more than 450 years.
The fires have already badly damaged other historic sites, including much of Gounsa Temple in Uiseong, which was built in 681.
"The buildings and remains of what Buddhist monks have left over 1,300 years are now all gone," said Deungwoon, the head of the Gounsa Temple.
