Strong winds fan South Korea wildfires as death toll climbs to 18

UISEONG COUNTY, South Korea - At least 24 people have died as multiple wildfires rage across South Korea’s south-eastern region, with thousands of firefighters aided by the military deployed in a bid to contain one of the country’s worst forest fires in decades.

A helicopter fighting the deadly wildfires crashed on March 26, killing the pilot, the fire department told AFP, as officials race to bring the massive blazes under control.

“A helicopter putting out the wildfire crashed in a mountain area in Uiseong County,” an official with the Gyeongbuk Fire Service said. “We have been told that there was one pilot who was declared dead at the scene.”
Following the chopper crash, the authorities suspended all such operations and said the cause of the accident was being investigated.

The deadly wildfires have spread rapidly and forced more than 27,000 residents to flee their homes, the government said. The blazes, fuelled by strong winds and dry weather, have razed entire neighbourhoods, closed schools and forced authorities to transfer hundreds of inmates from prisons.
The government has raised the crisis alert to its highest level and taken the rare step of transferring thousands of inmates out of prisons in the area.

“Wildfires burning for a fifth consecutive day... are causing unprecedented damage,” South Korea’s Acting President Han Duck-soo said.

He told an emergency safety and disaster meeting that the blazes were “developing in a way that is exceeding both existing prediction models and earlier expectations”.

“Throughout the night, chaos continued as power and communication lines were cut in several areas and roads were blocked,” he added.
In the city of Andong, some evacuees sheltering in an elementary school gym told AFP they had to flee so quickly they could bring nothing with them.

“The wind was so strong,” Mr Kwon So-han,