Five of 11 major fires are included after rainfall improves fire conditions.
The company has cleaned up South Korea since last Friday, killing at least 28 people, wounding dozens more, and scorching around 48,000 hectares (118,000 acres) of forest, according to local news agency Yonhap.
However, visibility and cool temperatures after overnight rain on Thursday led to improved fire conditions for flames driven by strong winds from the central county to coastal areas.
“It’s too early to call it a turning point, but of the 11 major fires that were furious, five are included entirely overnight,” Al Jazeera’s Jack Burton reported from Uiseong.
“And while some are still burning hard, we’re seeing good results in places like Uiseong. The fires have dropped to 5% of what they are,” he said.
Still, so far, about 38,000 residents have had to flee the affected areas, the government’s disaster response agency said.
“We plan to mobilize all available resources and extinguish the major flames by the end of the day,” South Korean Forest Bureau Director Lim Sang-thorpe told Yonghap.
Officials say the fire is fueled by dry winds and long-term droughts. Wildfires are not uncommon in Korea during dry spells.
In recent years, both average temperatures and extreme weather events have been increasing in the country, significantly increasing the risk and severity of fires.
Experts view the rise in wildfires as a sign of the ongoing impact of climate change.
Burton of Al Jazeera said, “Many homes and farms in the area are [around Uiseong] It was destroyed. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated and remained evacuated.
“Korean proxy Han Duck So said “all efforts will be made” to help people access financial resources to rebuild their homes. He said money should be infinite,” Burton said.
“Local governments say they’ll try to drain them from tent evacuation camps as quickly as possible with a temporary process, but that’s going to be a long process,” he added.
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