Wind-driven wildfires that were among South Korea’s worst ever were ravaging the country’s southern regions, killing 18 people, destroying more than 200 structures and forcing 27,000 people to evacuate, officials said on Wednesday.
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A 1,300-year-old Buddhist temple, houses, factories and vehicles were among the structures destroyed in the wildfires that have burned 43,330 acres (17,520 hectares) and injured 19 people, the government’s emergency response centre said.
In a televised address, South Korea’s acting President Han Duck-soo said the wildfires that began on Friday were causing worse damage than many other past wildfires.
“Damages are snowballing,” Han said. “There are concerns that we’ll have wildfire damages that we’ve never experienced, so we have to concentrate all our capabilities to put out the wildfires in the rest of this week.”
Han said crews were struggling to extinguish the wildfires because strong winds swept the areas overnight. He said about 4,650 firefighters, soldiers and other personnel were working on Wednesday to extinguish the wildfires with the help of about 130 helicopters. Han said “a small amount”, around 5mm-10mm (⅕ to ⅖ of an inch), of rain was expected on Thursday.
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Observers say the ongoing wildfires are the third biggest in South Korea in terms of land burned.