South Korea’s worst-ever wildfires, raging in the southeastern region, have been driven by dry weather and strong winds, and worsened by structural vulnerabilities in the country’s forests. Experts say the combination of highly flammable coniferous trees and a severe shortage of forest roads needed for firefighting efforts has amplified the damage.
Conifers are highly flammable because they contain oil-based compounds that ignite easily. This natural flammability is why pine rosin, rich in hydrocarbons like terpenes, was used as torch fuel before the advent of electricity. These trees act like kindling or gunpowder during a wildfire, fueling the spread of fire.
Coniferous forests cover 36.9% of the country’s 6.298 million hectares of forested area according to the Korea Forest Service on March 27. Coniferous forests are forests where conifers make up at least 75% of the vegetation. Korea’s granite-rich terrain has long favored the growth of conifers like pine trees, as they spread their roots widely and hold the soil, whereas broadleaf trees need deeper roots to thrive.
The regions hardest hit by the wildfires, Uiseong County and Andong City in North Gyeongsang Province, are particularly rich in coniferous trees due to their granite-rich terrain. “In the forest areas in North Gyeongsang Province, digging just 3 to 4 cm into the soil reveals solid bedrock,” said a Forest Service official.
In Andong, coniferous forests make up 52.9% of the forests—16 percentage points higher than the national average—while in Uiseong, the figure is 51.4%.
In contrast, wildfires have been more manageable in areas with fewer conifers. In Okcheon-gun, North Chungcheong Province, where conifers account for only 24.1% of forest cover, a fire that broke out on March 23 was brought under control within two days. Sancheong County and Hadong County in South Gyeongsang Province’s coniferous forest ratios were just above the national average, at 37.6% and 38.8%, respectively.
“Korea has unintentionally stacked up flammable fuel in its mountains,” said Ko Gi-yeon, president of the Korea Forest Fire Society. “We can’t control wind or weather, but we can manage tree species and forest density.”
A lack of forest roads, which allow fire trucks and maintenance crews to access forests, also hindered fire containment efforts.
Korea has only 4.1 meters of road per hectare, far behind Germany (54 meters) and Japan (24.1 meters). In Uiseong County, the area most damaged by the recent wildfires, the total length of forest roads is just 710 meters.
Without these roads, firefighting efforts often rely solely on helicopters. But helicopters can’t fly at night or in bad weather. The Forest Service estimates that forest roads increase firefighting efficiency by up to five times. While it might take a firefighter an hour to climb a mountain with a 15-liter backpack pump, a fire truck carrying 3,000 liters of water can get there in just five minutes. “For every additional meter away from a forest road, the wildfire-affected area increases by 1.55 square meters,” said an agency official.
In Ulju County, one of the affected regions, the difference between areas with and without forest roads was stark. In Hwajangsan, a mountain with a 3-meter-wide forest road, a fire that broke out two days earlier was fought throughout the night from 7 p.m. to 4 a.m. by 92 fire trucks and 1,240 firefighters. The fire was completely extinguished just 29 hours after it began.
However, firefighters struggled to contain the blaze for six days on Daewonsan, another mountain in the same county without forest roads. With helicopters only available during daylight hours, firefighters had no means of suppression at night. The blaze was finally extinguished after 128 hours.
Local governments have attempted to build forest roads but faced strong opposition from environmental groups and forest landowners, who have long argued that the roads would be an eyesore to lush scenery.
