Great job by the firefighters in Seoul for quickly putting out this forest fire before any property damage in the city could occur:
A wildfire on a mountain in central Seoul was completely put out Monday afternoon after 25 hours, authorities said.
The fire started on Mount Inwang, a popular trekking spot in the central ward of Jongno, shortly before noon Sunday and spread rapidly due to strong wind, temporarily forcing about 120 households to evacuate, according to the Seoul city government. No injuries or deaths have been reported.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but no word yet on what the cause of the fire was.
Hopefully firefighters can get this fire under control before it spreads down the mountain slopes towards Seoul:
President Yoon Suk Yeol instructed relevant authorities Sunday to make all-out efforts to put out and prevent spring wildfires, his office said.
Yoon issued the message following reports of wildfires on Mount Inwang, near the previous location of South Korea’s presidential office, and a mountain in Hongseong, 114 kilometers south of Seoul.
As of 2:30 p.m., some 580 officials and nine helicopters had been mobilized to put out the blaze on Mount Inwang that broke out shortly before noon. There have been no reports of deaths or injuries caused by it.
Authorities have banned entry to the mountain, with residents in nearby areas being evacuated. Some 120 households already have been evacuated.
Some 0.23 square kilometers of land, equivalent to the size of 32 football fields, have been destroyed by the wildfire.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
This must have been quite a sight for the people in Seoul who saw this zebra running around their neighborhood:
A zebra that escaped from a zoo in Seoul on Thursday was captured in the streets of the South Korean capital after having roamed at large in the streets for about three hours, according to zoo officials and fire authorities.
The zebra reportedly broke free from Seoul Children’s Grand Park’s zoo in eastern Seoul around 2:50 p.m. and roamed around the nearby residential area.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but the zebra was safely recaptured and returned to the zoo.
It is surprising how many elderly people ride the subway and the financial burden it is putting on the Seoul subway system:
The free subway fare for senior citizens, which was introduced in 1984, is one of the rare perks only seniors can enjoy in this aging society. It helps reduce rates of suicide and depression, as well as medical fees by keeping senior citizens active, according to the Korea Transport Institution’s research in 2015.
Korea Times
However, transporting elderly riders for free doesn’t give only advantages.
It has recently emerged as a headache for heads of big city governments, especially Seoul where most of the nation’s population is concentrated, as the deficits of Seoul Metro are snowballing to a dangerous new level.
“Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Seoul Metro has faced a deficit of 1 trillion won ($ 8.1 billion) annually, and the seniors’ free rides account for 30 percent of the deficit. Before COVID-19 it took 60 percent,” Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon wrote on Facebook, Tuesday. “In the meantime, Seoul Metro has endured by issuing corporate bonds, but now it has reached its upper limit. If it was a private company, it would have already gone bankrupt.”
You can read more at the link, but the Seoul government wants the national government to kick in money to support the subway system to prevent prices from going up even further.
