The death toll in wildfires ravaging South Korea's southeastern provinces has risen to 26, with an additional 30 people injured and about 37,000 people displaced from their homes, Yonhap reported.
Acting South Korean President Han Duck-soo instructed Interior Minister Ko Ki-dong to "please personally take care of the victims' health and safety on the ground and activate an efficient support system so that the wildfire-extinguishing personnel and volunteer workers do not burn out," telling him to oversee relief efforts until the fires are brought under control. He also expressed his dismay that many of the fire victims were senior citizens, many of whom were patients in nursing homes.
Additionally, the wildfires have burned an estimated 36,000 hectares of woodlands, making this the nation's worst-ever forest fire.
