Wildfire Spreads in Okcheon Hills... 'Forest Fire Level 1' Declared

Spread to Yeongdong Mountain,
Firefighting Operations Underway

At around 11:55 a.m. on the 23rd, a fire of unknown cause broke out on a mountain in Jocheon-ri, Cheongseong-myeon, Okcheon-gun, Chungbuk.

The fire spread to a nearby mountain in Busang-ri, Yongsan-myeon, Yeongdong-gun, prompting the forestry authorities to issue a Level 1 wildfire response in the afternoon and deploy eight firefighting helicopters and about ten vehicles to extinguish the fire.

Level 1 wildfire response is issued when the expected damage area is less than 30 hectares and the firefighting time is expected to be under 8 hours. When Level 1 is declared, initial response teams from local governments, national forest management firefighting crews, and helicopters from neighboring agencies are additionally deployed.

Okcheon-gun mobilized all 150 public official wildfire firefighting personnel, and Yeongdong-gun issued an emergency recall order to all public officials to respond to the wildfire.

A Yeongdong-gun official stated, "Although the wildfire has not directly reached residential areas, an evacuation order was issued due to the risk of spreading."

Due to the wildfire, as of 2:40 p.m. on the same day, Korea Expressway Corporation has blocked vehicle traffic heading toward Seoul on the Gyeongbu Expressway between Geumgang IC and Yeongdong IC.