The forest fire in Onyang-eup, Ulju-gun, Ulsan, which had been burning the mountain frightfully for the past six days, was completely contained with 4mm of rain.
During the same period, forest fires in Hwasan Mountain, Eonyang-eup, Ulju-gun, were extinguished at night using a systematic forest road, and were caught 29 hours after the forest fire, raising the need to expand forest roads to extinguish forest fires.
The Ulsan Fire Department said the forest fire in Onyang-eup, Ulju-gun, was completely extinguished at 7:30 a.m. on the 28th and lowered the response level. Earlier on the 27th, Ulsan City cited the Korea Forest Service's judgment and said, "We extinguished the Onyang wildfire as of 8:40 p.m."
Light rain on the 27th played a major role in the catch of the Onyang wildfire, which began on the 22nd and lasted nearly a week. It was around 1mm at dawn, but rain increased the humidity of the forest fire site, speeding up the main fire extinguishing work.
At 3 p.m., Ulsan City officially announced that the main fire had been caught. Strong winds appeared as a variable while the firefighting personnel were cleaning up the remaining fires, but the remaining fires were quickly cleared as it rained for about 50 minutes at the forest fire site from 8 p.m. At that time, the rain was only 4mm, but it was enough to completely extinguish the forest fire.
During this forest fire period, the need for forest road was also raised in extinguishing forest fires. On the 25th, when the Onyang forest fire was in full swing, Hwasan Mountain in Songdae-ri, Eonyang-eup, Ulju-gun also caught fire. Hwaesan Mountain was in the city center of Eonyang, so there were concerns about damage to private houses, but the fire was extinguished in 29 hours at 5 p.m. the next day.
The forest road opened in the mountain played a big role in the rapid extinguishment of the fire in Hwasan Mountain. Forest authorities deployed a large number of extinguishing equipment and manpower along the forest road to extinguish the situation even though helicopters were suspended after sunset. The slope of the mountain is gentle Fire equipment was fortunate to be able to move into the mountains, officials at the scene said.
On the other hand, Daeunsan Mountain, the site of the Onyang forest fire, is a mountain with a steep slope and a rough mountain. There is a forest road, but it has been sporadically formed in several places. It was virtually impossible to enter the forest fire extinguishing vehicle and to access the fire extinguishing personnel, making it impossible for helicopters to withdraw at night.
An Ulsan city official said, "The Onyang wildfire was not caught as it was likely to be caught due to strong winds," adding, "If there was a forest road to the ridges of the 6th, 7th, and 8th parts of the mountain, we could have used fire extinguishing equipment at night to build a fire line and catch the fire under the fallen leaves."
Korea has a very low forest density compared to major countries in the world. According to the Korea Forest Service's "major state forest density," the forest density, which represents the forest road length per ha, is only 4.1m in Korea as of 2023. It was 24.1 meters in Japan and 9.5 meters in the U.S. It reached 50.5 meters in Austria and 54.0 meters in Germany.
Ulsan Mayor Kim Doo-gyeom said, "After experiencing this forest fire, I thought that we should expand the forest road in the mountains in the future," adding, "The forest road acts as a forest fire defense line in itself. It is also effective in terms of forest management, so I hope the government will come forward to protect forests," he said.
