Locals displaced by wildfires take refuge at the temporary shelter erected at a gymnasium in Uiseong County, North Gyeongsang Province, on March 31, 2025. (Jung Yong-il/Hankyoreh)
Massive wildfires reduced swathes of upper North Gyeongsang Province to ash. They also exposed the ugly reality of the rapid decline of rural populations in Korea’s super-aged society. The roaring flames mostly consumed elderly communities, and it is mostly senior citizens who have had to flee their homes.
On March 23, the second day of the blaze, over 60 elderly residents lined up outside Uiseong Sports Complex, which had been converted into an evacuation shelter after a quickly spreading wildfire broke out in the county. Residents of a nursing home who were fit enough to move had arrived the previous day. Those in poorer health were transferred to another nursing facility.
These elderly locals lay on thin mats placed on the ground, where caregivers attended to their needs. Air mattresses that prevent bedsores, which can turn necrotic in serious cases, proved a luxury in such shelters. People who were able to eat without assistance in a wheelchair were an extreme minority. Most of the evacuees in the shelter had trouble sitting or standing by themselves, and their heads constantly swiveled around to grasp their surroundings.
Crowded together without even a curtain separating one person from another, the concept of basic human rights and dignity disappeared in such surroundings. When an evacuee needed a diaper changed, caregivers simply held up a blanket as if it were a privacy curtain. The scene offered a stark contrast to the relief tents, which offer complete privacy, lined up in front of the gymnasium.
Locals displaced by wildfires take refuge at the temporary shelter erected at a gymnasium in Uiseong County, North Gyeongsang Province, on March 23, 2025. (Kim Young-won/Hankyoreh)
The purported reason for such conditions was “ease of management.” The number of caregivers was dreadfully low compared to the number of those in need, and they
“needed to be able to see everyone in a single glance,” as one caregiver working at the shelter told the Hankyoreh. “The current setup is unavoidable.”
North Gyeongsang Governor Lee Cheol-woo alluded to such circumstances on March 24. After receiving a report from the township of Giran in Andong that morning, Lee suggested that “those being held in facilities need to be evacuated to other facilities.” Lee’s characterization of the situation as “hard to watch,” shows just how much he fancied himself a passive observer.
Over 4,000 Yeongdeok County residents who were forced out of their homes by the wildfires on March 25 had to spend hellish nights in 20 makeshift shelters scattered throughout the region. The majority of them were sent to the Yeongdeok Culture and Sports Center, which also lacked any relief tents. A civil servant working at the shelter said that they hadn’t been able to get any tents in time but wouldn’t have been able to set them up even if they had. If they had set up tents, the center would only be able to accommodate 100 or so people.
Kim Suk-ja, a resident of Byeongbang, a rural village in Uiseong’s Danchon Township, evacuates to her local township office on March 24, 2025. (Kim Young-won/Hankyoreh)
When the sun set on March 26, over 500 people who had left the shelter during the daytime flooded back to the recreation center. Some of them took the blankets provided as part of the relief supplies and went back to their cars. People in their 50s and 60s, relatively young in this crowd, headed to nearby lodgings. The majority of people left in the shelter were people in their 70s and older. On March 28, the fourth day of the disaster, relief tents finally arrived.
Only adding to the discomfort and anxiety of their stay was the fact that many of those who were forced into these evacuation shelters left behind the medications they took daily for conditions, including high blood pressure and diabetes. Ha In-sun, 74, who hailed from the county’s Chuksan Township, was packing her bags and preparing to leave on March 27, saying that she needed to go all the way to a hospital in Seoul to refill her glaucoma prescription, which had burned up with the rest of her worldly belongings.
The available restrooms and shower facilities were in a separate part of the complex, a distance that may as well have been miles for the limitedly mobile residents. For many, even the restroom in the nearby hallway was hard to get to. The shower facilities in the center’s swimming pool, which was built more recently, were a full 500 meters away
Locals displaced by wildfires eat dinner at a shelter set up in a community center in Yeongyang County on March 26, 2025. (Kim Tae-hyeong/Hankyoreh)
Many of the elderly residents don’t use smartphones, meaning that they don’t receive the flood of emergency disaster alerts sent out by the government. Most of them heard the news through the village foreman or the village broadcast. Some of them were carried out of their homes after falling asleep.
The March wildfires killed 26 people in North Gyeongsang alone. One was a helicopter pilot who died in a crash, and the remaining 25 were all local residents. By age group, two were in their 50s, seven in their 60s, two in their 70s, 13 in their 80s, and one in their 90s. That is, 16 of the deceased, or 64%, were in their 70s or older.
Those who perished simply couldn’t evacuate in time amid a fire that seemed to suddenly rain down on them like an air raid. Three out of four people who evacuated from a nursing home in Yeongdeok County died while fleeing. Their ages were 79, 85 and 87. Two nursing home staffers were trying to get them out by vehicle. The car caught fire, and by the time the caregivers had managed to pull one of their older passengers out of the vehicle, it exploded.
Forensic officials investigate the remains of a car that was burned in wildfires on the side of the road in Yeongdeok County on March 26, 2025. (Yonhap)
One 86-year-old resident who had lived alone in an isolated part of the village met his end alone as well. It wasn’t until three days after the flames had engulfed their home that local civil servants found his remains.
The notion of an idyllic life in the countryside went up in flames during this wildfire season, which swept a region whose local population is aging and dying out. Young people who had set out to try something new and the middle-aged and elderly residents dreaming of a peaceful retirement, saw their hopes and dreams reduced to ruins.
“They’ve tried to revive these dying regions with various policies, but the fire showed the reality of these farming and fishing villages and how vulnerable they are to natural disasters,” said Kim Yong-kwan, 46, who had kept a ranch in the Samdong Township of Ulsan’s Ulju County. “Nobody is going to want to move to these communities now, knowing that they can lose everything.”
“We need policies that guarantee our safety,” he said.
What remains of Hahwa 1, a rural village in Uiseong’s Danchon Township, on March 28, 2025, after being devastated by wildfires. (Kim Tae-hyeong/Hankyoreh)
By Joo Seong-mi, staff reporter
Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]
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