By Ian Werther in News — 14 Mar 2026

Donghae Launches 24/7 Wildfire Plan for Spring Dry Season

Donghae City, located in Gangwon Province on South Korea’s east coast, announced that it will operate a “Large Wildfire Special Countermeasure Period” from March 14 to April 19, 2026, due to heightened wildfire risk in the spring dry season. The plan was disclosed on March 13 by city officials.

During the period, the city will expand staffing at the wildfire prevention headquarters and run round-the-clock operations, including nighttime wildfire watchers and a rapid-response Forest Disaster Response Unit, to maintain a 24-hour firefighting posture.

Pāhoehoe Lava flow on the coastal plain of Kīlauea, The Big Island of Hawai generated wildfire. The new lava is moving across the old surface, which is covered with a layer of moss about an inch thick. This moss is burning generating the smoke visible in the image. This kind of fire cannot be easily prevented or suppressed. The update that was written by USGS for the same day the image was taken - 09/04/07 says :"Lava flows advancing through vegetation are hazardous and can produce fire and methane explosions that propel chunks of lava and rock several feet into the air." The picture was taken from a helicopter. — Representative image for context; not directly related to the specific event in this article. License: CC BY-SA 3.0. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

To address the risk posed by spring tourism, authorities will intensify patrols and surveillance in coastal areas known for tourism and forest adjacency, specifically Mokho, Mangsan, and Chuam, as well as nearby forested zones.

On March 11, the city held a wildfire prevention council meeting at the Disaster Safety Situation Room with about 50 participants from the deputy mayor’s office, the Samcheok National Forest Management Office, and police and fire departments to review interagency cooperation and action plans.

Shin Gwang-jin, head of the city’s Green Space Division, warned that dry spring conditions and even small careless acts can spark large wildfires, and urged residents and visitors to participate actively in prevention efforts.

Albumen silver print of Edmonia Lewis. To quote the National Portrait Gallery: "Edmonia Lewis achieved international recognition as a sculptor during the second half of the nineteenth century. Educated at Oberlin College, she settled first in Boston, where she created portrait busts and medallions of prominent politicians, writers, and abolitionists. In 1865 she relocated to Rome and joined an active community of American and British artists living abroad. Adopting a neoclassical style then widely popular, she found inspiration in stories from the Bible and classical mythology, as well as from African American history. Her sculpture Forever Free (1867) depicts an African American couple as they first hear news of the Emancipation Proclamation. Although Lewis enjoyed unprecedented success for several decades, she died in obscurity."
Dimensions:

Image/Sheet: 9.2 x 5.2 cm (3 5/8 x 2 1/16")
Mount: 10 x 6.2 cm (3 15/16 x 2 7/16")
Mat: 45.7 x 35.6 cm (18 x 14") — Representative image for context; not directly related to the specific event in this article. License: Public domain. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Beyond Korea, the measure illustrates how local governments coordinate across agencies to protect communities and critical infrastructure from wildfires during peak risk periods. For U.S. readers, it underscores the shared importance of wildfire preparedness in wildfire-prone regions, the role of cross-agency coordination, and how tourism-heavy coastal areas adjacent to forests are managed to reduce risk to people and economies.

For context, Donghae is a coastal city in Gangwon Province. The areas named for intensified surveillance—Mokho, Mangsan, and Chuam—are coastal zones near Donghae that attract visitors and are near forested landscapes, highlighting the typical wildfire threats faced in the region during dry springs.

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