As the forest fire in Hamji Mountain in Daegu spread, the Fire Agency issued a national firefighting mobilization order. It has been about a month since the issuance in response to a large forest fire in North Gyeongsang Province.
The Fire Agency announced on the 28th at 4:05 p.m. that it had issued a national firefighting mobilization order related to the Hamji Mountain fire.
According to forest authorities, a forest fire broke out at around 2:01 p.m. at Hamji Mountain (San39 Nogok-dong) in Buk-gu, Daegu. The firefighting authorities arrived at the scene at 2:14 p.m. and began extinguishing the fire, and by 4:49 p.m., they had issued the first stage of firefighting response.
The Korea Forest Service issued the first stage of firefighting response at 3:10 p.m. and raised it to the second stage at 3:40 p.m. The second stage of firefighting is issued when the expected damage area is 50 to 100 hectares, with an average wind speed of 7 to 11 m/s, and the estimated time for extinguishing the fire is more than 10 hours and less than 48 hours.
A total of 29 helicopters have been deployed to extinguish the fire at Hamji Mountain, including four from the firefighting authorities, 17 from the forest authorities, six rented, and two military helicopters. In addition, according to the national firefighting mobilization order, 20 firefighting vehicles from North Gyeongsang Province and eight from the Central 119 Rescue Headquarters were deployed.
A national firefighting mobilization order is issued when it is difficult to extinguish a fire with only the firefighting resources of the city or province where the disaster occurs, necessitating the mobilization of national-level firefighting resources.
Earlier, on the 22nd of last month, as the forest fire spread mainly in Sancheong, South Gyeongsang Province, and Ulju, Ulsan, and Uiseong, North Gyeongsang Province, the Fire Agency issued a national firefighting mobilization order, and upon the fire spreading to Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, it issued an additional order.
As the forest fire spread, Buk-gu, Daegu sent disaster text messages to residents near Hamji Mountain urging them to evacuate. Consequently, 670 residents from Nogok-dong and 540 from Mutaejo-yadong, totaling about 1,200 residents from 899 households, evacuated to nearby Paldal Elementary School and Maechun Elementary School. Buk-gu also advised residents in the Seobyeon-dong area to evacuate to Dongbyeon Middle School as the fire continued to spread.
So far, the affected area of the fire is estimated to be 57.7 hectares, and the fire line is estimated to be 4.4 km. The forest authorities believe that the affected area may increase further. According to the firefighting authorities, as of 5 a.m. that day, there have been no reported casualties.
An office worker in Dongbyeon-dong, Buk-gu, 3.8 km east of the fire, identified as Kwon (28), said, "Residents of the apartment are worried, standing outside and watching the forest fire without being able to go inside," and noted, "Buk-gu advised to evacuate from Seobyeon-dong to Dongbyeon-dong, but if the fire spreads here (to Dongbyeon-dong), there will be no way to evacuate."