South Korean wildfire forces thousands to flee, comes close to nuclear power station
- The fire began Friday morning on a mountain in the county of Uljin and destroyed at least 22 homes and 9 other buildings
- By Friday evening, around 1,000 firefighters battled the blaze amid strong winds, trying to stop it reaching a liquefied natural gas facility
Thousands of South Koreans fled their homes Friday as a large wildfire ripped through an eastern coastal area and temporarily threatened a nuclear power station before being driven away by winds.
As of Friday evening, around 1,000 firefighters were battling the blaze amid strong winds and focusing their efforts on preventing it from reaching a liquefied natural gas facility near the city of Samcheok.
The fire began Friday morning on a mountain in the nearby county of Uljin and destroyed at least 22 homes and nine other structures, according to officials at the National Fire Agency and the Korea Forest Service.
Nearly 4,000 people fled their houses as the fire spread, but all but 161 had returned as of Friday evening, said Lee Jae-hoon, a National Fire Agency official.
The fire reached the perimeter of a seaside nuclear power plant, forcing the operator to reduce operations to 50 per cent. Hundreds of firefighters were deployed to the plant and kept the blaze under control before winds drove it northward toward Samcheok, said Kang Dae-hoon, another agency official.
Most of giant forest fire doused in South Korea
There were no immediate reports of injuries or deaths.
In 2019 a massive forest fire ripped through South Korea’s mountainous northern coast, destroying 135 homes and forcing more than 4,000 to flee the region that hosted the 2018 Winter Olympics.
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One person was killed by what government officials said was possibly the country’s biggest forest fire ever. Another person was fatally struck by an object blown over by the high winds fanning the flames.
The fires started from a transformer spark near a resort in the county of Goseong and strong winds also carried the blaze to the towns of Gangneung and Inje before spreading to the mountains.
