South Korea’s acting President Han Duck-soo said the wildfires that began last Friday were worse than many previous  He said this in a televised address “Damages are snowballing,” “There are concerns that we’ll have wildfire damages that we’ve never experienced, so we have to concentrate all our capabilities to put out the wildfires over the rest of this week.”
He explained how crews struggled to extinguish the wildfires because strong winds swept the areas overnight. According to him, about 4,650 firefighters, soldiers and other personnel were working Wednesday with the help of about 130 helicopters, adding that “a small amount” of rain was expected Thursday.

The wildfires have scorched a massive swath of the country’s southeast over the past five days killing at least 24 people, according to the national fire service. The combination of strong winds and dry weather has enabled the fires to spread frighteningly across the region.

As of Wednesday afternoon, an estimated 44,000 acres had been scorched according to Korea Forest Service, with at least 300 buildings destroyed and almost 30,000 people forced to evacuate from their homes, according to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures The 1,000-year-old Gowoonsa Buddhist temple was among the buildings lost to the fires. blaze has also claimed the lives of farm animals and pets.