South Korean police say deadly wildfire may have been caused by rite at family grave

South Korean police have launched a probe into a man suspected of accidentally igniting the country’s worst wildfires in history while cleaning his relatives’ gravesites.

More than a dozen fires have been fanned by high winds and dry conditions, killing at least 28 people and burning more than 48,000 hectares of forest, the worst of its kind recorded in the country, according to the interior ministry.

Authorities believe the man, who is in his 50s, began the fire in south-eastern Uiseong County — the hardest-hit region with 12,800 hectares of its woodland affected —when he performed an ancestral rite by a family grave on March 22, an official from Gyeongbuk Provincial Police said.

“We booked him without detention for investigation on Saturday on suspicions of inadvertently starting the wildfires,” the police official said.

Investigators will summon him for questioning once the on-site inspection is complete, which could take more than a month, according to the official.

In South Korea’s legal system, booking involves registering a suspect but may not coincide immediately with arrest or charges.

The state-run Yonhap news agency reported the man had denied the allegations.

The fires have been fuelled by strong winds and ultra-dry conditions, with the area experiencing below-average rainfall for months following South Korea’s hottest year on record in 2024.

Among the deceased is a helicopter pilot, who died when his aircraft crashed in a mountainous area.

The blaze also destroyed several historic sites, including the Gounsa temple complex in Uiseong, which is believed to have been originally built in the 7th century.

The inferno has also laid bare South Korea’s demographic crisis and regional disparities, as rural areas are both underpopulated and disproportionately elderly.

AP/Reuters

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