‘Unprecedented damage’: Death toll in South Korea wildfires rises to 24, including chopper pilot

UISEONG COUNTY, South Korea - At least 24 people have died as multiple wildfires rage across South Korea’s south-eastern region, with thousands of firefighters aided by the military deployed in a bid to contain one of the country’s worst forest fires in decades.

A helicopter fighting

the deadly wildfires

crashed on March 26, killing the pilot, the fire department told AFP, as officials race to bring the massive blazes under control.

“A helicopter putting out the wildfire crashed in a mountain area in Uiseong County,” an official with the Gyeongbuk Fire Service said. “We have been told that there was one pilot who was declared dead at the scene.”

Following the chopper crash, the authorities suspended all such operations and said the cause of the accident was being investigated.

The deadly wildfires have spread rapidly and forced more than 27,000 residents to flee their homes, the government said. The blazes, fuelled by strong winds and dry weather, have razed entire neighbourhoods, closed schools and forced authorities to transfer hundreds of inmates from prisons.

The government has raised the crisis alert to its highest level and taken the rare step of transferring thousands of inmates out of prisons in the area.

“Wildfires burning for a fifth consecutive day... are causing unprecedented damage,” South Korea’s Acting President Han Duck-soo said.

He told an emergency safety and disaster meeting that the blazes were “developing in a way that is exceeding both existing prediction models and earlier expectations”.

“Throughout the night, chaos continued as power and communication lines were cut in several areas and roads were blocked,” he added.

In the city of Andong, some evacuees sheltering in an elementary school gym told AFP they had to flee so quickly they could bring nothing with them.

“The wind was so strong,” Mr Kwon So-han, a 79-year-old resident in Andong, told AFP, adding that as soon as he got the evacuation order he fled.

“The fire came from the mountain and fell on my house. Those who haven’t experienced it won’t know. I could only bring my body.”

As of March 26 at 5am, 14 people had died in a wildfire starting from Uiseong county, while four other deaths were linked to another fire from Sancheong county, according to the Safety Ministry.

Many of those who had perished were in their 60s and 70s, said local police official Son Chang-ho.

According to the interior ministry, the wildfires have charred 17,398ha, with the blaze in Uiseong county alone accounting for 87 per cent of the total.

The Uiseong fire, only 68 per cent contained and exacerbated by gusting winds, shows “unimaginable” scale and speed, said Mr Lee Byung-doo, a forest disaster expert at the National Institute of Forest Science.

Dry conditions were expected to persist in the wildfire-hit region, the Safety Ministry said.

Climate change is projected to make wildfires more frequent globally, Mr Lee said, citing the unusual timing of wildfires that ravaged part of Los Angeles in January and a recent wildfire in north-east Japan.

“We have to admit large-scale wildfires are going to increase and for that, we need more resources and trained manpower,” he told Reuters.

‘Most devastating’

By March 26, the Uiseong fires were also threatening several Unesco World Heritage sites – Hahoe Village and the Byeongsan Confucian Academy – in Andong city, a city official said, as the authorities sprayed fire retardant to try to protect them.

The flames had already burned down Goun Temple, an ancient temple built in 681, Yonhap reported.

The fires are “the most devastating” yet in South Korea, Mr Han said.

Thousands of firefighters have been deployed, but “strong winds reaching speeds of 25 metres per second persisted from yesterday afternoon through the night, forcing the suspension of helicopter and drone operations”, Mr Han said.

The changing wind patterns and dry weather have “revealed the limitations of conventional firefighting methods”, he added.

Hundreds of soliders have joined the effort, with helicopter support also provided by US forces stationed in the South.

Responding to criticism about a lack of equipment and helicopters on the ground, Mr Kim Jong-gun, a spokesperson for the Korea Forest Service, said that 4,919 firefighting personnel were being deployed on March 26, including hundreds of police officers and military units. Before the crash, some 87 helicopters were being used.

The agency has been facing technical issues with its fleet of 48 Russian helicopters. Eight had been out of operation since last year due to an inability to import parts from Russia because of sanctions related to the Ukraine war, Mr Yoon Joon-byeong, a Democratic Party lawmaker said in October, using data from the forest service.

‘Fireballs’

2024 was South Korea’s hottest year on record, with the Korea Meteorological Administration saying that the average annual temperature was 14.5 deg C – two degrees higher than the preceding 30-year average of 12.5 deg C.

Some types of extreme weather have a well-established link with climate change, such as heatwaves or heavy rainfall.

Other phenomena, such as forest fires, droughts, snowstorms and tropical storms can result from a combination of complex factors.

“The region had been experiencing unusually dry weather with below-average precipitation,” Mr Han said, adding that the South had been hit by more than double the number of fires in 2025 than 2024.

The major fire in Uiseong was reportedly caused by a person tending to a family grave who accidentally ignited the blaze.

The government has said more than 27,000 people have been relocated to temporary shelters, and it is promising to provide emergency relief and financial support to those displaced.

Apple farmer Cho Jae-oak told AFP that he and his wife had sprayed water around their house all day in a desperate bid to protect it.

“We kept spraying and guarded. When the fire was burning on the mountain, fireballs flew here,” he said, adding that the encroaching flames eventually forced them to leave. AFP, REUTERS