South Korea wildfires ‘largest on record’; 26 dead, over 36,000 hectares burnt | In pictures

The wildfires raging across South Korea are now "the largest on record", the country's disaster chief said Thursday. The current wildfires have burned more forest than any previous blazes. The death toll rose to 26.

"The wildfire is spreading rapidly," Lee Han-kyung, disaster and safety division chief, was quoted by AFP as saying. 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.”

Here's all about South Korea wildfires | In pictures

1. Multiple wildfires have been raging across South Korea's southeastern regions since last Friday. According to the Associated Press, the government has mobilised thousands of people, dozens of helicopters and other equipment to extinguish the blazes.

2. Officials said strong winds are hampering their efforts.

3. Authorities suspect human error caused several of the wildfires, including cases where people started fires while clearing overgrown grass from family tombs or with sparks during welding work.

The wildfires that originated in Uiseong have been moving rapidly eastward, spreading almost to the coast, carried by gusty winds and with dry conditions aggravating the situation.

4. Experts said the Uiseong fire showed extremely unusual spread in terms of its scale and speed, and that climate change is expected to make wildfires more frequent and deadly globally.

Higher temperatures amplified by human-caused climate change contributed to the existing seasonally dry conditions, "turning dry landscapes into dangerous fire fuel" in the region, the Climate Central group, an independent body made up of scientists and researchers, said in a report.

5. The wildfires have so far killed 26 people, forced at least 37,000 others to flee their homes and destroyed more than 300 structures.

The fatalities include a pilot whose helicopter crashed during efforts to contain a fire and four firefighters and other workers who died after being trapped by fast-moving flames driven by strong winds.

6. Authorities haven't disclosed details of the civilian dead, except that they are mostly in their 60s and 70s.

7. Blazes have also injured 30 people, eight of them seriously, destroyed 325 buildings and structures and forced more than 37,180 people to evacuate, the government’s disaster response center said in a report Thursday.

8. The wildfires have burned 36,010 hectares (88,980 acres) of land in the southeast. Observers say that's the worst figure of its kind in South Korea.

9. The hardest-hit areas include Andong city and the neighboring counties of Uiseong and Sancheong, and the city of Ulsan.

10. The Korea Forest Service has raised its wildfire warning to the highest level, requiring local governments to assign more workers to emergency response, tighten entry restrictions for forests and parks, and recommend that military units withhold live-fire exercises.