With at least 18 fatalities and 27,000 evacuating, South Korea is dealing with “snowballing damage” from some of its biggest wildfires ever.
In addition to burning over 43,000 acres, the fires have destroyed a 1,300-year-old Buddhist temple, homes, industries, and automobiles.
A wildfire near Andong is erupting in smoke and flames.
Acting President Han Duck-soo of South Korea stated in a televised speech that the devastation from the flames that started last Friday was worse than that of many previous disasters.
Mr. Han remarked, “Damages are snowballing,” “There are concerns that we’ll have wildfire damages that we’ve never experienced, so we have to concentrate all our capabilities to put out the wildfires in the rest of this week.”
He continued: “We are deploying all available personnel and equipment in response to the worst wildfires ever but the situation is not good.”
