The authorities have finally extinguished the wildfires on South Korea's east coast after a three-day battle.<br />Those fires destroyed at least 300 homes and buildings -- by area, burning more than 500 hectares.<br />Our Won Jung-hwan is in Gangwon-do with the latest. <br /> All of the wildfires in Gangwon-do Province have been completely put out as of noon on Saturday.<br />In the place where they first started, Goseong County, the flames were extinguished yesterday, as were the fires in the city of Gangneung.<br />The only ones left today were in Inje -- still 15 percent as of this morning -- but now those are out too.<br />Firefighters had to wait overnight, hoping that high winds wouldn't spread the flames, but luckily, the winds were low.<br />And in the daytime today, they were able to deploy their helicopters to this hilly and mountainous terrain.<br />According to the Korea Forest Service this afternoon, they finished the job with the help of 14 helicopters and 600 firefighters and military personnel.<br /><br /> Now... there are other things to take care of. <br />Most important is to help the people who've been affected. <br />There are still more than a hundred people staying in provisional shelters across Gangwon-do province... being tended to by volunteers and companies who've sent supplies.<br />The government has been ordered to pay special attention to those who lost their homes... with support like daily necessities, medical treatment and psychological counseling if necessary.<br />But it seems some will need help in the long term too.<br /><br /> <br />"It is uncomfortable to live in the shelter. I need to go my farm and work, but I don't know how much support I'll get in terms of benefits to help me with this loss. I don't think we'll have a good harvest this year." <br /><br />And when asked about the plans laid out by the government,… some are worried about where they'll live.<br /><br /> <br />"There's an apartment the government has given us to stay in for a while until we have somewhere else. But the problem is it doesn't have an elevator, and I'm too old and weak to walk up the stairs. So I asked for a shipping container to stay in. But it'll take two months for them to renovate the container into a living space."<br /><br /> The authorities also need to investigate the cause of the fire.<br />In Goseong, witnesses said they saw and heard an explosion from a telephone pole, but the Korea Electric Power Corporation said the switch on the pole was unlikely to explode on its own.<br /> They suspect a spark from exposed wires might have ignited dust in the dry air. <br />Won Jung-hwan Arirang News, Gangneung. <br />
