Rain provides some respite as loss of life toll rises

Kim Seung-weon surveys the burnt stays of his home, two days after a wildfire swept by his village, in Andong on March 27, 2025. | Photograph by ANTHONY WALLACE / AFP

YEONGDEOK, South Korea — In a single day rain helped douse a few of South Korea’s worst-ever wildfires, authorities stated Friday, because the loss of life toll from the unprecedented blazes raging for almost every week reached 28.

Greater than a dozen fires have ravaged giant areas of the nation’s southeast, destroying an historic temple, and forcing round 37,000 individuals to evacuate.

The flames blocked roads and knocked out communication traces, inflicting residents to flee in panic as fireballs rained down on vehicles caught in site visitors jams to flee the world.

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The flames have been fanned by excessive winds and ultra-dry circumstances, with the world experiencing below-average rains for months after South Korea skilled its hottest 12 months on file in 2024.

However in a single day Thursday it rained within the affected space, serving to firefighters to include a few of the worst blazes.

“The rain that fell from the afternoon into the early morning aided the firefighting efforts,” Korea Forest Service chief Lim Sang-seop stated.

The rain “lowered the haze, bettering visibility, and the cooler temperatures in comparison with different days create very beneficial circumstances for firefighting efforts”, he stated.

South Korea’s inside ministry stated a complete of 28 individuals had been killed as of Friday morning, and 37 others had been injured — 9 critically.

The fatalities embrace a pilot in his 70s whose helicopter crashed Wednesday whereas attempting to include a hearth, in addition to 4 firefighters and different employees who misplaced their lives after being trapped by quickly advancing flames.

Hottest 12 months in 2024

Greater than 2,240 homes within the area have been destroyed, in keeping with the most recent figures, and an official stated Thursday greater than 35,000 hectares (86,500 acres) of forest have been burned.

The extent of harm makes it South Korea’s largest-ever wildfire, after an inferno in April 2000 that scorched 23,913 hectares throughout the east coast.

The fireplace additionally destroyed a number of historic websites, together with the Gounsa temple complicated in Uiseong, which is believed to have been initially constructed within the seventh century.

Among the many broken constructions on the temple are two state-designated “treasures,” considered one of which is a pavilion in-built 1668 that overlooks a stream.

Final 12 months was South Korea’s hottest on file, though temperatures within the months working as much as the blaze had been colder than final 12 months and consistent with the nation’s 30-year common, Korea Meteorological Administration knowledge exhibits.

However the fire-hit area had been experiencing unusually dry climate with below-average precipitation.

In keeping with the inside ministry, the wildfires had been by chance began by a grave customer and “sparks from a brush cutter”.

Each the devastating California wildfires in January and the fires in South Korea are comparable, stated Kimberley Simpson, fellow in nature-based local weather options on the College of Sheffield’s Faculty of Biosciences.

“Each had been preceded by unusually heat, dry circumstances that left vegetation extremely flammable, and each had been intensified by sturdy winds that unfold the flames and hampered firefighting efforts,” she stated.

“Solely three months into 2025, we’ve already witnessed record-breaking wildfire exercise in a number of areas.

“As local weather change drives rising temperatures and alters rainfall patterns, the circumstances that give rise to those devastating fires have gotten extra frequent.”

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