No fewer than 19 individuals have been killed in South Korea’s wildfire outbreaks, with multiple raging blazes causing unprecedented damage.

New Telegraph gathered that on Tuesday night, the death toll jumped to 19 as wind-driven flames tore through neighbourhoods and razed an ancient temple.

According to officers, eighteen people were killed in the wildfires, and a pilot in a firefighting helicopter died when his aircraft crashed in a mountain area.

New Telegraph recalls that more than a dozen fires broke out over the weekend, scorching wide swathes of the southeast, forcing around 27,000 people to urgently evacuate, with the fire cutting off roads and downing communications lines as residents fled in panic.

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According to the interior ministry, the wildfires have charred 17,398 hectares (42,991 acres), with the blaze in Uiseong county alone accounting for 87 percent of the total.

The government has raised the crisis alert to its highest level and taken the rare step of transferring thousands of inmates out of prisons in the area.

South Korea’s acting president Han Duck-Soo told an emergency safety and disaster meeting that the blazes were developing in a way that is exceeding both existing prediction models and earlier expectations.

“Wildfires burning for a fifth consecutive day are causing unprecedented damage.

“Throughout the night, chaos continued as power and communication lines were cut in several areas and roads were blocked,” he added.