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Wind-dri­ven wild­fires that were among South Ko­rea’s worst ever have rav­aged the coun­try’s south­ern re­gions, killing 24 peo­ple, de­stroy­ing more than 200 struc­tures and forc­ing 27,000 res­i­dents to evac­u­ate, of­fi­cials said Wednes­day.

The death toll in­clud­ed a pi­lot who died af­ter a he­li­copter crashed dur­ing ef­forts to con­tain a blaze in the south­east­ern town of Uiseong, one of the hard­est-hit ar­eas. The air­craft had no oth­er crew mem­bers. Po­lice said that most of the dead are those in their 60s and 70s.

Wild­fires in South Ko­rea de­stroyed near­ly half of more than 30 struc­tures at an an­cient tem­ple. The wind-dri­ven blazes rav­aging the coun­try’s south­ern re­gions have killed 18 peo­ple, de­stroyed more than 200 struc­tures and forced 27,000 peo­ple to evac­u­ate, of­fi­cials said Wednes­day.