A spate of destructive wildland fires tore across parts of South Korea in March 2025. The region’s larger blazes, including burning near Andong in the country’s southeast, were contained by the end of the month, according to news reports, but they left a substantial mark on the landscape.
A strip of burned area in Gyeongsangbuk-do (North Gyeongsang) province is visible in this image, acquired on April 4, 2025, with the OLI-2 (Operational Land Imager-2) on Landsat 9. The image is false color, showing shortwave infrared, near infrared, and visible light (bands 6-5-3). This band combination makes it easier to distinguish areas of unburned vegetation (green) from the recently burned landscape (brown). A detailed view of the image is shown below.
Dozens of blazes began to ignite across the country on March 21 amid dry, windy conditions. The next day, a particularly large plume of smoke was visible near Andong. This fire continued to spread, and by March 25, satellite-derived thermal anomalies indicated that the blaze reached all the way to the coast. Light rain moved over the area and helped officials contain the blaze by March 28. Smoke and clouds ultimately cleared, allowing Landsat 9 to observe a burned area stretching more than 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the coastline.
According to news reports, the deadly fires burned tens of thousands of hectares and destroyed thousands of structures, some of them historic. The incident has been described as being among the country’s worst fire disasters.
NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Kathryn Hansen.
