South Korea hopes to use break in weather to contain deadly wildfires

By Minwoo Park and Daewoung Kim

ANDONG, South Korea (Reuters) - Light rain offered some relief to South Korean authorities tackling the country's worst wildfires on record, with exhausted firefighters making another push on Friday to contain blazes stretching 70 km (44 miles).

At least 28 people have died and more than 45,000 hectares (111,197 acres) of largely forest land in the country's southeast have been charred or are burning, as strong winds have driven blazes from central Uiseong county to coastal regions over the past week.

Uiseong reported fires had been put out in 95% of the area as of early Friday, and flames in 85% of the neighbouring Andong city, which is home to UNESCO World Heritage sites, have been doused, according to the Korea Forest Service.

Yeongdeok county on the east coast, where the fire spread from the initial blaze more than 70 km away in under 12 hours, was still fighting to contain the flames, with nearly a third of the area still ablaze.

Light rain of less than 3 mm (0.12 inch) fell in some parts of the regions on Thursday and had offered "a little help," forest service spokesman Kim Jong-gun said.

Firefighters and helicopters were taking advantage of more favourable weather and better visibility to make a push to make more progress before winds are expected to pick up later on Friday, he said.

The blazes that began in Uiseong have become the biggest single forest fire in South Korea's history, destroying an area equivalent to about two-thirds of the island of Singapore.

Wildfires also burned large areas in other regions of South Korea.

More than 80 helicopters started flying at daybreak on Friday to dump water, the safety ministry said. South Korea relies on helicopters to fight forest fires because of its mountainous terrain. A helicopter pilot died on Wednesday after crashing while trying to tackle a blaze.

Experts have 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.

The wildfires have displaced more than 30,000 residents, many of whom are elderly, and ravaged everything in their path, including historic temples and homes, in the mountainous forest regions of North Gyeongsang province.

(Reporting by Minwoo Park, Daewoung Kim, Hongji Kim and Nicoco Chan in Andong; Writing by Jack Kim; Editing by Ed Davies and Sonali Paul)