English listening test halts helicopters fighting forest fires

A National Fire Service helicopter flies over smoke from a fire in Hampyeong, South Jeolla Province on Monday, in a forest fire containment operation. (Yonhap)

An English listening comprehension test taking place in middle schools halted helicopters deployed to fight forest fires in Hampyeong and Suncheon, South Jeolla Province, on Tuesday morning.

The Jeonnam Fire Service Headquarters stopped helicopter operations from 11:00 a.m. to 11:30, including the 20 minutes when the radio-based listening comprehension test was carried out simultaneously in 29 schools in nearby areas affected by the forest fires.

The forest fires started separately on Monday in Hampyeong and Suncheon and burnt 6.25 square kilometers -- the equivalent of 875 standard soccer fields -- triggering the highest response level for forest fire cases in South Jeolla Province for the first time ever.

The decision came out as the Hampyeong and Suncheon Offices of Education requested the fire authorities to refrain from making noise during the test, local media reported.

The listening comprehension test broadcast by state-run education media EBS has been jointly operated by 16 municipal education offices across South Korea, except Seoul, since 1983.

Although the test results themselves do not provide any certification for students, most secondary schools choose to use the scores from the test as an assessment factor for determining school grades. The importance placed on the test results triggered a scandal surrounding the leaking of test questions to private cram schools in 1996.

The fire authorities pushed up the helicopter drivers’ lunch hour, telling them to go eat lunch while pausing from their fire fighting mission.

The fires in Suncheon and Hampyeong were extinguished at 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. respectively on Tuesday after two days of all-out fire fighting.

By Lim Jae-seong(forestjs@heraldcorp.com)