A forest fire that broke out in Sancheong County in South Gyeongsang Province on Friday continues for the second day, with a Level Three alert in the nation's wildfire response system still in place.

The fire began around 3:30 p.m. in a mountainous area of Sincheon on Friday. It quickly spread amid dry conditions and strong winds, prompting authorities to issue the Level Three alert some three hours later.

A Level Three alert is issued by the forest agency chief when the affected area is expected to be at least 100 hectares, and average wind speeds of at least eleven meters per second are projected to cause a major wildfire that cannot be extinguished within two days.

Forest authorities have mobilized some 120 vehicles and one-thousand-360 personnel in efforts to combat the fire, while some 40 helicopters were brought in from the fire agency, the military, and the Coast Guard.
 
As of noon Saturday, around 70 percent of the fire had been put out.

While some 210 area residents were evacuated, one person who inhaled smoke was sent to a hospital.

Authorities plan to investigate the cause of the fire based on a statement from the first person who reported the fire, who said that it was started by a spark from a grass trimmer near the site of the fire.