South Korean and US aerial firefighting units extinguish Uljin wildfire

A wildfire in Uljin County, South Korea, has been successfully extinguished after burning for over a week, according to a report by the Korea Forest Service (KFS).

The fire, which began on 4 March in Uljin County, North Gyeongsang, ultimately burned around 20,923 hectares of woodland over the course of 213 hours, with strong winds of 30m/s spreading the blaze north towards the city of Samcheok, Gangwong Province.

The firefighting effort in tackling the blaze included the deployment of 84 helicopters and 3,970 personnel by the KFS, 48 helicopters and 1,600 personnel by the South Korean military, and five helicopters from the US Army’s Korea-based 2nd Infantry Division (2ID).

The US military aircraft were deployed following a formal request by the South Korean government, and were a mix of UH-60 Black Hawk and CH-47 Chinook helicopters.

However, while the Uljin fire has been extinguished, firefighters continue to tackle several smaller wildfires which continue to burn across the region, which has been experiencing high levels of dry weather in recent months.

The KFS previously extinguished a separate wildfire in the region which began in South Gyeongsang on Monday 28, as well as a similar three-day blaze in the south-eastern county of Yeongdeok earlier the same month.