From 25 to 29 March 2025, eleven disaster response workers visited the wildfire sites in Uiseong, Andong and Yeongyang in North Gyeongsang, and carried out relief work.
25–26 March, Uiseong County
On the first day the team called on an elder — a long-standing member of Cornerstone Mission — who runs a vegetable seedling farm in Uiseong, and prayed for the safety of his workers and for the polytunnels to be spared. Turning back from the farm towards the town, we found that a place which had been safe only tens of minutes earlier was now burning fiercely, sparks carried in on the strong wind having caught the pine woods and houses along the road. Driving through acrid smoke and heat that left visibility at under ten metres, fear and confusion took hold in an instant, and we barely escaped Uiseong ahead of the flames.
The next morning we returned to the farm we had visited the day before. Overnight, around 30% of the polytunnels and seedlings that had been untouched were lost — damage estimated at 300 to 400 million won. Two neighbouring farmhouses had burned black.
Even so, the farm workers and the elder’s family said they were thankful: they had fought the airborne sparks through the night and put them out, so the remaining seedlings could still be sold. We looked over the damage together and prayed that God would keep them.
26–27 March, Andong