Fire authorities have contained the main blaze of a wildfire in the eastern Gangwon provincial county of Yanggu some 17 hours after the fire broke out.

According to the Korea Forest Service on Friday, the main blaze was contained at 8:50 a.m., with authorities clearing up embers.

The wildfire began at around 4:30 p.m. Thursday on a set of hills in the county, prompting authorities to dispatch three helicopters, but they were forced to pull out an hour later after losing light.

After around 180 personnel deployed on the ground struggled to extinguish the fire overnight, efforts were accelerated with the arrival of six helicopters at sunrise on Friday morning.

There have been no casualties from the fires, but some 39-thousand square meters of forest were scorched. Authorities plan to investigate the cause.