A court has handed down suspended prison terms for two people convicted of starting the nation’s worst-ever wildfires in North Gyeongsang Province in March.

On Friday the Uiseong branch of the Daegu District Court sentenced one of the convicts, identified by the surname Shin, to two years suspended for three years, and the other, identified by the surname Jeong, to two and a half years suspended for three years.

Probation was ordered for Jeong, and both were ordered to perform 120 hours of community service.

The court heard that Shin set a small tree on fire at his grandparents’ gravesite on a hill in the province’s Uiseong County in March last year. 

Jeong caused a wildfire on the same day in another part of Uiseong by burning agricultural by-products at his rented orchard.

Though the court recognized the gravity of the damage, it also considered the extreme dry conditions at the time of the fires and said it would be excessive to place all the responsibility on the defendants.

Due to strong winds, the wildfires spread to four nearby cities and counties — Andong, Cheongsong, Yeongyang and Yeongdeok — killing 26 people and injuring 31 others.

Approximately three-thousand-500 people were displaced, and the fires damaged a record 99-thousand-289 hectares of land.