South Korea wildfires 'largest on record': disaster chief

Wildfires in South Korea are now "the largest on record," having burned more forest than any previous blaze, the country's disaster chief said Thursday, as the death toll rose to 26.

More than a dozen fires broke out over the weekend, scorching wide swathes of the southeast, forcing around 27,000 people to urgently evacuate, with the fire cutting off roads and downing communications lines as residents fled in panic.

"The wildfire is spreading rapidly," said Lee Han-kyung, disaster and safety division chief.

"Twenty-six people have died, eight are seriously injured and 22 have been lightly injured," he said.

"The forest damage has reached 35,810 hectares, already exceeding the area affected by the 2000 east coast wildfire, previously the largest on record, by more than 10,000 hectares."

The extent of damage makes it South Korea's largest-ever wildfire, after the inferno in April 2000 that scorched 23,913 hectares across the east coast.

Authorities said changing wind patterns and dry weather had revealed the limitations of conventional firefighting methods.

Most of those killed were local residents, but at least three firefighters were killed, and a pilot in a firefighting helicopter died when his aircraft crashed in a mountain area, officials said.

Last year was South Korea's hottest year on record, with the Korea Meteorological Administration saying that the average annual temperature was 14.5 degrees Celsius — 2 degrees higher than the preceding 30-year average of 12.5 degrees.

The fire-hit region had been experiencing unusually dry weather with below-average precipitation, authorities said.

'Climate crisis'

"This wildfire has once again exposed the harsh reality of a climate crisis unlike anything we've experienced before," disaster chief Lee said.

"The affected areas have seen only half the average rainfall, coupled with unusually strong winds, which have drastically accelerated the spread of the fire and intensified the damage," he said.

Expert Yeh Sang-Wook, professor of climatology at Seoul's Hanyang University, told AFP that the lack of rainfall had dried out the land "creating favorable conditions for wildfires."

"This can be seen as one of the fundamental causes," he said.

"We can't say that it's only due to climate change, but climate change is directly (and) indirectly affecting the changes we are experiencing now. This is a sheer fact."