North Gyeongsang Province had 80 forest fires in the past five years, the most in Korea, followed by South Jeolla Province with 65 fires and South Gyeongsan Province with 44, according to a report by the National Emergency Management Agency on Wednesday.

Though Gangwon Province is commonly thought to be very fire-prone because of its mountainous terrain, it actually ranked fourth with 36 fires.

The report, submitted to Rep. Kim Yoo-jung of the Democratic Party for parliamentary audit, said a total of 2,275 forest fires broke out nationwide in the past five years, damaging 4,367 hectares of land. That is an average of 455 fires burning 873 hectares per year.

Among major cities, Busan and Incheon had the most forest fires with an annual average of 23 and 20 respectively. Jeju Island averaged only one a year.

The biggest cause of fires was accidents by mountain climbers, responsible for an average of 202 cases a year, followed by burning of rice paddies (79 cases) and trash incineration (38 cases).