On the 20th, Kim Gwang-yong, head of the Disaster Safety Management Office at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, said, "We must strengthen inspections of areas vulnerable to wildfires, frequently check everyday risk factors such as wood-fired boilers, and carry out prevention activities more tightly, including strictly cracking down on illegal trash burning."
Presiding over the "spring wildfire prevention interagency countermeasures meeting" at the central disaster and safety situation room at the Government Complex Sejong on the same day, the Deputy Minister said, "Due to dry weather, the number of wildfires this year has more than doubled—1.7 times—compared with the same period last year, and the area damaged has increased more than 12 times," and stated accordingly.
He said, "Even before the full spring season began, in Jan., a wildfire of 93 hectares broke out in Uiseong, North Gyeongsang," adding, "What is more concerning is that the wildfire risk will grow further going forward."
He added, "Looking at statistics from the past 10 years, there were a total of 38 large wildfires of 100 hectares or more, and 28 of them (about 74%) occurred in March–April," and "With the awareness that a small spark can grow into a massive blaze, please ensure that initial response is faster and resident evacuations proceed swiftly."