The South Korean firefighters fought what the acting president called on Wednesday some of the worst forest fires of all time, powered by windy and dry conditions. At least 24 people died, the authorities said, including the pilot of a shot helicopter.
The National Fire Agency said the helicopter crashed on Wednesday during fire fighting efforts. He said he couldn’t immediately provide additional details, including the cause of the accident or if someone else was on board.
Two former Buddhist temples were among the more than 200 damaged or destroyed buildings since the start of fires on Friday in the south-east of the country. Tens of thousands of acres have been burned, the government said, and more than 27,000 people have evacuated.
On nearly 30 flames since Friday, eight still burned on Wednesday.
In addition to the 24 deaths, at least 26 people were injured, including 12, including the headquarters for disaster and central security countermeasures said on Wednesday. Many of those who died were in sixties and the 1970s, said a local police officer during a briefing.
The government said 43,000 acres had been damaged.
The fires seemed to “break the worst of the worst forest fires of all time,” said interim president Han Duck-Soo, who was reinstated this week after being charged in December. In a press release, his office said that fires spread beyond initial predictions.
Among the evacuated people, there were residents of the 600 -year -old man Andong Hahoe Folk VillageA UNESCO World Heritage Site at more than 130 miles southeast of Seoul. The villagers have described the fire as “the devil” on social networks and expressed his frustration in the face of the lack of success to turn it off.
The flames and smoke have damaged 209 buildings in the region, according to the Department of the Ministry, including two temples. Videos of local news The stations have shown hell surrounding and closing on the temples, both over 1,000 years old.
The Korea Heritage Service said on social networks on Wednesday that some treasures of one, the temple of Gounsa, including a stone Buddha statue, had been removed before the fire reached it.
Local officials have closed the roads and suspended the train services, and some places have lost energy.
The government said firefighters contained almost 70% of the largest fire, which burned 37,000 acres. Their efforts were slowed down by winds of 56 miles per hour from Tuesday afternoon, which prevented them from mobilizing helicopters and drones.
The first fire began on Friday afternoon in Sancheong on Friday afternoon, about 160 miles southeast of the capital. The Interior Ministry said that he was investigating the allegations that a farmer’s lawn mower had started this one.
Separate fires broke out in the counties and neighboring cities in the following days from episodes in a cemetery and in a waste incinerator. Officials attributed the rapid spread of fires to dry weather conditions.
The Ministry of Justice said that he had transferred around 500 detainees on Tuesday in the province of North Gyeongsang, according to Yonhap News.
