▲ Fire vehicles from Gyeonggi Province, Gangwon Province, and other regions gather at the parking lot of Miryang Stadium in Gyodong, Miryang, Gyeongnam Province, on the morning of the 12th.
Two hundred fire water tankers dispatched from across the country have gathered in Gyeongnam Province, which is suffering from a severe drought, to provide water supply support.
According to the Gyeongnam Fire Headquarters and other sources on the 12th, a national fire mobilization order was issued for the Gyeongnam region starting at 8:00 PM the previous day, prompting 200 water tankers and 400 firefighters from 16 fire headquarters nationwide to move to Gyeongnam.
These vehicles and personnel arrived at designated resource collection points across the province starting at 9:00 AM today and will be deployed for water supply support until the afternoon of the 13th.
Some vehicles that departed from Gangwon Province and northern Gyeonggi Province are currently heading to Gyeongnam as of 9:00 AM today.
The breakdown of deployed vehicles by region is as follows: 39 from Seoul, 37 from Gyeonggi, 19 from South Chungcheong, 18 from northern Gyeonggi, 16 from Incheon, 14 from North Gyeongsang, 12 from Busan, 11 from Gangwon, 9 from North Chungcheong, 8 from South Jeolla, 6 from Daegu, 3 from North Jeolla, and 2 each from Gwangju, Daejeon, Ulsan, and Sejong.
The 200 water tankers will be distributed across 14 cities and counties in the province depending on the drought conditions.
Miryang, which is experiencing a severe drought, will receive the largest allocation with 40 vehicles, while 20 vehicles each will be deployed to Jinju, Sacheon, and Gimhae.
Eighteen vehicles will be assigned to Yangsan, 14 each to Namhae and Hadong, 10 each to Geoje, Uiryeong, Geochang, and Changwon, 6 to Changnyeong, and 4 each to Tongyeong and Haman.
The medium-sized water tankers primarily deployed have a capacity of 6,000 to 12,000 liters.
At the request of Gyeongnam Province and local cities and counties, each vehicle will shuttle between vulnerable water supply areas and water sources to provide agricultural and domestic water.
The main targets for support are areas lacking domestic water and rural communities suffering heavy crop damage.
Gyeongnam Province is experiencing worsening agricultural water shortages due to the prolonged drought.
According to the Agricultural Drought Management System (ADMS), the average storage rate of agricultural reservoirs in the province stood at 33.3% as of today, reaching only 46.7% of the normal year average of 71.3%.
Except for Hamyang, agricultural water drought stages have been issued for all regions among the 18 cities and counties in the province, with Miryang, Geoje, Haman, and Uiryeong at the highest "severe" stage.
The agricultural water drought stages are divided into four levels based on the storage rate compared to normal years: "Attention" (70% or below), "Caution" (60% or below), "Alert" (50% or below), and "Severe" (40% or below).
The storage rate in the Miryang area stands at 25.66%, which is 34.37% of the normal year average of 74.65%.
In particular, the water storage rates at Baegan Reservoir and Ungdong Reservoir in Miryang have dropped to 1.3% and 3.5%, respectively.
This national fire mobilization order was issued after the Gyeongnam Fire Headquarters requested mobilization from the National Fire Agency, concluding that there are limits to providing water supply support with local fire resources alone amid the ongoing drought.
A national fire mobilization order is a measure to mobilize fire resources nationwide when there is a high risk of a disaster or when a disaster occurs and it is deemed difficult to respond with local fire forces alone.
This marks the second time a national fire mobilization order has been issued due to a drought, following the one in Gangneung in August of last year.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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