‘Average 10.6 Wildfires per Day’ Korea Forest Service Launches Full-Scale Spring Wildfire Response Effort

The Korea Forest Service is launching an all-out effort to respond to spring wildfires. President Yoon Suk-yeol also personally issued an urgent directive to related ministries, including the Korea Forest Service and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, to prevent wildfires and manage the situation.

On the 3rd, the forestry authorities are engaged in wildfire suppression in Woldeung-myeon, Suncheon-si, Jeollanam-do. The forestry authorities extinguished the main fire after 5 hours and 18 minutes, but the fire completely destroyed two nearby greenhouses and caused 91 residents to evacuate. Provided by the Korea Forest Service [Image source=Yonhap News]

The Korea Forest Service announced on the 5th that it has designated the period from the 6th of this month to the 30th of next month as a special wildfire countermeasure period in response to the increased frequency of wildfires due to dry weather.

According to the Korea Forest Service, a total of 85 wildfires occurred nationwide over eight days from the 25th of last month to the 4th of this month. This averages to 10.6 wildfires per day. From January 1 to March 4 of this year, 184 wildfires have occurred.

Accordingly, the Korea Forest Service plans to fully respond to the prevention and management of spring wildfires by operating the special wildfire countermeasure period.

First, the national crisis alert level for wildfire disasters will be raised from ‘Caution’ to ‘Warning,’ and a 24-hour emergency duty system for wildfire response will be activated by the Korea Forest Service and local governments.

With the emergency duty system in place, public officials and employees from each institution will be assigned individual responsibility areas to focus on on-site monitoring and enforcement.

The Korea Forest Service will mobilize all its personnel to form mobile enforcement teams to conduct special inspections in forest areas during the special wildfire countermeasure period. The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs will crack down on illegal burning in rural areas and support the shredding of agricultural by-products. The Cultural Heritage Administration will identify and respond to wildfire vulnerabilities at important cultural heritage sites. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy will inspect vulnerabilities at critical national infrastructure such as nuclear power plants and gas facilities. The Ministry of Environment will control access to national parks. Each ministry will continue joint inspections and enforcement activities targeting wildfire vulnerabilities under their jurisdiction.

In particular, the Korea Forest Service plans to frequently disseminate wildfire risk information (disaster text messages) to the public and focus on national monitoring near critical national facilities such as power plants, gas facilities, and cultural heritage sites to preemptively block wildfire risk factors.

Nam Sung-hyun, head of the Korea Forest Service, said, “Recent wildfires mainly occur during burning activities near forest-adjacent areas,” and urged, “The public should refrain from burning near forest-adjacent areas and pay special attention to wildfire prevention.”

Meanwhile, burning rice paddies or field ridges or incinerating garbage within 100 meters of forest areas is illegal, and violators may be fined up to 1 million won.