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News / Severe Weather
Strong winds fuel raging wildfire in South Korea
By Courtney Travis, AccuWeather senior meteorologist & Robert Richards, AccuWeather meteorologist
Published May 1, 2020 5:49 PM EDT
Emergency officials are reviewing new plans to fight wildfires and open emergency shelters while following COVID-19 public safety recommendations.
A wildfire broke out and spread quickly across the Goseong region of South Korea on Friday evening.
Located in the northeastern part of the country, the fire was spotted around 8 p.m., local time, which forced officials to evacuate residents in the area.
As of 10:30 p.m. local time, everyone was safe with no casualties, according to Yonhap News.
However, strong winds in the area helped fan the flames and has allowed the blaze to spread quickly. Some school grounds in the region were reportedly on fire.
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Later Friday night, the forest fire became a Stage 3 fire, the highest level of response.
Asia Business Daily reported at least 420 residents were evacuated from their homes and over 600 firefighters and 225 fire trucks were working to contain the blaze.
This region of South Korea has already been dealing with wildfires so far this spring. In early April, a fire spread across northeastern parts of the city, killing one and injuring 11 others. South Korea also declared a state of emergency in January when fires hit five different cities along the eastern shores of the country.
Keep checking back on AccuWeather.com and stay tuned to the AccuWeather Network on DirecTV, Frontier and Verizon Fios.
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