While 40,000 young scouts had pitched their tents, the hot sun was shining from the South Korean sky.

At one point it was so bad that the local fire department pointed a fire hose in the air, and allowed lukewarm water to flow down over the hot spotter.

There’s been a heat wave at the world’s largest scout camp for young people.

– The days are very hot. So when night falls, 26 feels like a cool breeze. Of course it’s hot, but we can adapt, the team leader for part of the Norwegian delegation, Mikkel Rev Edsem told NRK.

– Here you have to get up and get out of the tent between 6 and 7 o’clock because of the hot sun, and the tent heats up quickly, wrote the Norwegian delegation Facebook.

In the camp area, the temperature has reached 33 degrees, he wrote Reuters.

More hurt

On Friday, several media outlets reported, among other things CNNthat some young people fell ill from the heat.

The event opened on Tuesday and will run until August 12. On Thursday alone, 1,486 people visited the hospital at the World Scout Jamboree. This was conveyed by the Chairman of the Jamboree Committee as well as the Minister of Equality and Family of South Korea, Kim Hyun-sook.

Of those hospitalized, 138 were reported to have heat-related illnesses, but none were in critical condition.

More than 200 buses with coolers

Several cases of stomach flu have been reported in the camp. The head of the Geir contingent, Olav Kaase, said that so far, Norwegian youths were only dehydrated.

– There are some who are not very good at taking enough fluids, but we have an idea of ​​who they are and can act on them well. In the hospital there were grazing and insect bites, said Kaase.

At the camp, ​​​​more than 200 buses have been dispatched by the authorities, and stationed at several different places in the camp site.

Scouts can stay there for about 30 minutes at a time, to avoid getting sick from the heat. Cold water and ice scattered everywhere.

Kaase said they have their own health team with volunteer doctors and nurses.

– Almost everyone in the Norwegian health team was at the World Scout camp in Japan in 2015, it was warmer there, so they knew this beforehand, the manager said.

– Does not matter

Ingrid Tønnesen (17) from Spjelkavik has gotten used to the hot weather over the past few days. He will be in the camp for a total of 12 days, to participate in various activities.

– It’s great fun in the camp despite the heat. I met lots of interesting people and talked about all kinds of weird stuff.

– It’s hot here, but we deal with it with shade and water, and make sure it’s not a problem, Tønnesen told NRK.

There are nearly 40,000 young scouts from 158 different countries gathered for the World Scout Jamboree camp at Saemangeum in South Korea. Most of the participants were youth between the ages of 14 and 17.

700 of them are young Norwegians with scout leaders, informed Norwegian Scout Association press contact Kirvil Kaasa to NRK.

Leaves the camp

The UK Scout Association, the largest, voted to withdraw from the World Scout Jamboree on Friday. So are the United States and Singapore.

– We hope this will help relieve pressure on the camps in general, they wrote in one pers conference.

The Norwegian group has no plans to withdraw.

– Our scouts are fine. There is a good atmosphere, contingent leader Geir Olav Kaase told NRK.