Forest Service Acting Chief in Unified Command of Wildfire from Midnight, Photo=News1, ‘The wildfire that started in Miryang, Gyeongnam continues its momentum for the second day.’,
‘According to the forest authorities, as of 5 a.m. on the 24th, the wildfire containment rate in Miryang is 51%. Currently, the total fire line is 5.8 km, and 2.95 km has been contained.’,
‘Authorities are focusing on preventing the spread around residential areas by deploying 618 personnel and 159 firefighting vehicles for the remaining 2.85 km.’,
‘The affected area by the wildfire expanded to 124 hectares as of the same time.’,
‘The wildfire occurred amid dry weather conditions and strong winds, and since it started close to sunset, there was a significant gap in helicopter firefighting efforts. This is believed to have hindered the forest authorities from suppressing the fire overnight.’,
‘As the wildfire spread overnight, 184 residents, including village residents and patients from a nursing hospital, evacuated to Samrangjin Elementary School, Dongyang/Baeyang Community Centers, or their homes. Fortunately, there have been no reports of casualties.’,
‘The forest authorities plan to rapidly engage in extinguishing the main fire by deploying 31 forest helicopters simultaneously at sunrise at 7:04 a.m.’,
‘The Central Disaster Countermeasures Headquarters of the Forest Service and Gyeongnam Province stated, “We will mobilize all available resources and equipment for a comprehensive response until the main fire is completely extinguished, aiming for early containment of the wildfire.”‘,
‘The Miryang wildfire originated at 4:10 p.m. the previous day in a hill area in Geomse-ri, Samrangjin-eup.’,
‘Concerned about the fire spreading, the fire authorities issued a national firefighting mobilization order at 5:39 p.m., about an hour and 30 minutes after the fire broke out.’,
‘At midnight on this day, the Forest Service designated the acting Chief of the Forest Service as the unified command authority at the Miryang wildfire site, initiating containment efforts.’