Residents in South Korea's Andong city told to evacuate as wildfires spread

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Officials in the South Korean city of Andong on Tuesday alerted residents to evacuate to safe areas as firefighters struggled to contain wildfires that have ravaged southern regions since last week, forcing thousands to flee and destroying likely hundreds of structures, including a 1,300-year-old Buddhist temple.

Thousands of firefighters in South Korea were battling at least nine wildfires across the country as of Tuesday afternoon, after the blazes fueled by dry winds burned more than 36,300 acres of land in the past five days.

Officials in Andong, a city in the country’s southeast, and the nearby town of Uiseong ordered residents in several villages and those near Andong University to evacuate to safe locations or temporary shelters — including schools and indoor gyms — as a fire that started in Uiseong continued to spread due to strong winds. The fire in Andong was also reaching the village of Pungcheon, home to the Hahoe folk village, a UNESCO World Heritage site founded around the 14-15th centuries.

The blaze in Uiseong destroyed Gounsa, a Buddhist temple built in the 7th century, according to officials from the Korea Heritage Service. There were no immediate reports of injuries, and some of the temple’s national treasures, including a stone Buddha statue, were evacuated before the fire reached the wooden buildings.

The fire was also spreading to the nearby coastal town of Yeongdeok, where officials shut down roads and ordered residents of at least four villages to evacuate. The Justice Ministry did not immediately confirm local reports that it had begun relocating some 2,600 inmates from a prison in Cheongsong county, near Uiseong.

More than 3,700 firefighters, along with 76 helicopters and 530 vehicles, were deployed to battle the fires in the Uiseong and Andong areas, which were nearly 70% contained as of Tuesday evening, according to the Korea Forest Service.

The service raised its wildfire warning to the highest “serious” level nationwide, requiring local governments to allocate a larger work force for emergency response, tighten entry restrictions for forests and parks, and recommend that military units withhold live-fire exercises.

South Korean officials said earlier on Tuesday that firefighters had extinguished most of the flames from the largest wildfires in the country’s southern regions, including Uiseong, the neighboring town of Sancheong, and Ulsan city. However, the ongoing dry and windy weather now appears to be causing setbacks.

Four firefighters and government workers were killed in Sancheong on Saturday after being trapped by fast-moving flames driven by strong winds. At least 11 other people have been injured by wildfires around the country since last Friday, according to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.

The national government designated the hardest-hit southeastern regions as disaster zones to focus resources and accelerate recovery efforts.

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, serving as the country’s acting leader following President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment over a December martial law decree, vowed an all-out effort to contain the wildfires during a government meeting on Tuesday. He also urged public vigilance as dry spring weather persists.

Government officials suspect that several of the recent wildfires, including those in Uiseong and Ulsan, were caused by human error, possibly due to the use of fire while clearing overgrown grass in family tombs or sparks from welding work.

Smoke rises from a mountain in Andong, South Korea, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Kim Doo-hoon/Yonhap via AP)

Smoke rises from a mountain in Andong, South Korea, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Kim Doo-hoon/Yonhap via AP)

A Korea Forest Service helicopter dumps fire retardant on a wildfire in Sancheong, South Korea, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Kim Dong-min/Yonhap via AP)

A firefighter works to extinguish a fire at a house that has been engulfed in a wildfire in Uiseong, South Korea, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Yoon Gwan-shick/Yonhap via AP)

Houses burn in a village after being engulfed by a wildfire fueled by strong winds in Uiseong, South Korea, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Yoon Gwan-shick/Yonhap via AP)

Smoke rises from a mountain in Andong, South Korea, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (Kim Doo-hoon/Yonhap via AP)

Houses burn in a village after being engulfed by a wildfire fueled by strong winds in Uiseong, South Korea, Monday, March 24, 2025. (Yoon Gwan-shick/Yonhap via AP)

A road is closed as a wildfire fueled by strong winds spreads in Uiseong, South Korea, Monday, March 24, 2025. (Yoon Gwan-shick/Yonhap via AP)

A Korea Forest Service helicopter dumps fire retardant on a wildfire in Uiseong, South Korea, Monday, March 24, 2025. (Yoon Gwan-shick/Yonhap via AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court acted “literally in the middle of the night” and without sufficient explanation in blocking the Trump administration from deporting any Venezuelans held in northern Texas under an 18th-century wartime law, Justice Samuel Alito wrote in a sharp dissent that castigated the seven-member majority.

Joined by fellow conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, Alito said there was “dubious factual support” for granting the request in an emergency appeal from the American Civil Liberties Union. The group contended that immigration authorities appeared to be moving to restart such removals under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

The majority did not provide a detailed explanation in the order early Saturday, as is typical, but the court previously said deportations could proceed only after those about to be removed had a chance to argue their case in court and were given “a reasonable time” to contest their pending removals.

“Both the Executive and the Judiciary have an obligation to follow the law,” Alito said in the dissent released hours after the court’s intervention against Republican President Donald Trump’s administration.

The justices’ brief order directed the administration not to remove Venezuelans held in the Bluebonnet Detention Center “until further order of this court.”

Alito said that “unprecedented” relief was “hastily and prematurely granted.”

He wrote that it was not clear whether the Supreme Court had jurisdiction at this stage of the case, saying that not all legal avenues had been played out in lower courts and the justices had not had the chance to hear the government's side.

“The only papers before this Court were those submitted by the applicants. The Court had not ordered or received a response by the Government regarding either the applicants’ factual allegations or any of the legal issues presented by the application. And the Court did not have the benefit of a Government response filed in any of the lower courts either,” Alito said.

Alito said the legal filings, “while alleging that the applicants were in imminent danger of removal, provided little concrete support for that allegation.” He noted that while the court did not hear directly from the government regarding any planned deportations under the Alien Enemies Act in this case, a government lawyer in a different matter had told a U.S. District Court in a hearing Friday evening that no such deportations were then planned to occur either Friday or Saturday.

“In sum, literally in the middle of the night, the Court issued unprecedented and legally questionable relief without giving the lower courts a chance to rule, without hearing from the opposing party, within eight hours of receiving the application, with dubious factual support for its order, and without providing any explanation for its order,” Alito wrote. “I refused to join the Court’s order because we had no good reason to think that, under the circumstances, issuing an order at midnight was necessary or appropriate. Both the Executive and the Judiciary have an obligation to follow the law."

The administration has filed paperwork urging the high court to reconsider its hold.

On Friday, two federal judges refused to step in as lawyers for the men launched a desperate legal campaign to prevent their deportation. Early Saturday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also refused to issue an order protecting the detainees from being deported.

The ACLU had already sued to block deportations of two Venezuelans held in the Bluebonnet facility and sought an order barring removals of any immigrants in the region under the Alien Enemies Act.

In the emergency filing early Friday, the ACLU warned that immigration authorities were accusing other Venezuelan men held there of being members of the Tren de Aragua gang, which would make them subject to Trump's use of the law.

It has only been invoked three previous times in U.S. history, most recently during World War II to hold Japanese-American civilians in internment camps. The administration contends it gives them the power to swiftly remove immigrants they identified as members of the gang, regardless of their immigration status.

Following the unanimous high court order on April 9, federal judges in Colorado, New York and southern Texas promptly issued orders barring removal of detainees under the law until the administration provides a process for them to make claims in court.

But there had been no such order issued in the area of Texas that covers Bluebonnet, which is 24 miles north of Abilene in the far northern end of the state.

Some Venezuelans subject to Trump's use of the law have been sent to El Salvador and housed in its notorious main prison.

FILE - The Supreme Court is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)