Unprecedented blazes have raged for nearly a week in South Korea, killing at least 28 and displacing tens of thousands. Firefighters are racing to save people and ancient artefacts. These are the largest, by area covered, wildfires in the country’s history.
More than a dozen fires have ravaged the country’s southeast, destroying a 1,300-year-old temple in Uiseong city and forcing around 37,000 people to evacuate.
The flames blocked roads and knocked out communication lines, causing residents to flee in panic as fireballs rained down on cars stuck in traffic jams to escape the area.
The flames have been fanned by high winds and ultra-dry conditions, with the region experiencing below-average rains for months after South Korea experienced its hottest year on record in 2024.
But overnight Thursday, it rained in the affected area, providing some relief. Authorities told Agence France-Presse Friday afternoon that the blaze was completely contained in Yeongdeok, one of the villages in the region.
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“The rain that fell from the afternoon into the early morning aided the firefighting efforts,” Korea Forest Service chief Lim Sang-seop said earlier in the day. It reduced the haze, which improved visibility, and the cooler temperatures compared to other days created very “favourable conditions for firefighting efforts”, he said.
South Korea’s interior ministry said a total of 28 people had been killed as of Friday morning, and 37 others were injured – nine seriously.
Most of the victims of the fire, which hit deeply rural Andong and Uiseong hardest, were “in their 60s and 70s”, an official from the Korea Forest Service told Agence France-Presse.
The country has a rapidly ageing society and regional disparities. Just over half its population lives in the greater Seoul area, while the countryside struggles to attract younger generations.
The fatalities include a pilot in his 70s whose helicopter crashed Wednesday while trying to contain a fire, as well as four firefighters and other workers who lost their lives after being trapped by rapidly advancing flames.
More than 2,240 houses in the region have been destroyed, according to the latest figures. An official also said Thursday that more than 35,000 hectares (86,500 acres) of forest have been burnt. This makes it South Korea’s largest-ever wildfire, rising above an inferno in April 2000 that scorched 23,913 hectares across the east coast.
The fire also destroyed several historic sites, including the Gounsa temple complex in Uiseong believed to have been built in the 7th century. Among the damaged structures at the temple are two state-designated “treasures,” one of which is a pavilion built in 1668 that overlooks a stream.
Last year was South Korea’s hottest on record, although temperatures in the months running up to the blaze had been colder than last year and in line with the country’s 30-year average, Korea Meteorological Administration data shows.
But the fire-hit region had been experiencing unusually dry weather with below-average precipitation.
According to the interior ministry, the wildfires were accidentally started by a grave visitor and “sparks from a brush cutter”.
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Some locals have expressed concerns that the villages were left to fend for themselves.
The governor of Yeongyang – where more than half of its 15,271 residents are 60 or older – issued a statement on Friday urging the town’s citizens to help by clearing embers and looking after their neighbours.
Six of the 28 victims were from the ageing village.
Governor Oh Do-chang said no helicopters had been deployed in his town over the past three days and urged the central government for more aid.
The devastating California wildfires in January and the fires in South Korea are similar, said Kimberley Simpson, a fellow in nature-based climate solutions at the University of Sheffield’s School of Biosciences.
“Both were preceded by unusually warm, dry conditions that left vegetation highly flammable, and both were intensified by strong winds that spread the flames and hampered firefighting efforts,” she said.
“Only three months into 2025, we’ve already witnessed record-breaking wildfire activity in multiple regions. As climate change drives rising temperatures and alters rainfall patterns, the conditions that give rise to these devastating fires are becoming more frequent.”
