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05-03-2025
TOKYO: More than 2,000 firefighters, backed by military helicopters, are battling Japan’s biggest forest fire in three decades, as the blaze burns thousands of hectares of land every day.
Officials on Monday said about 4,600 residents remain under evacuation advisories as the fire rages in the northern Iwate region, killing at least one person last week.
The fire, which broke out near the city of Ofunato, follows record low rainfall in the area and last year’s hottest summer on record across Japan, as climate change pushes up temperatures worldwide.
“Although it is inevitable that the fire will spread to some extent, we will take all possible measures to ensure there will be no impact on people’s homes,” Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said in parliament.
The fire has consumed approximately 5,200 acres (2,100 hectares) of land since it started on Thursday, the country’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency (FDMA) said on Monday.
“We are still examining the size of the affected area, but it is the biggest since the 1992 wildfire” in Kushiro, FDMA spokesman Hokkaido told media.
Firefighters from 14 Japanese regions, including units from Tokyo, were tackling the blaze, with 16 helicopters including from the military trying to douse the flames.
It is estimated to have damaged 84 buildings by Sunday, although details were still being assessed, the FDMA said.
About 2,000 people have left the area to stay with friends or relatives, while more than 1,200 evacuated to shelters, according to officials.
Footage from Ofunato on national broadcaster NHK showed orange flames close to buildings and white smoke billowing into the air.
While the number of wildfires in Japan has decreased since the 1970s, according to government data, the country still recorded about 1,300 such incidents in 2023, concentrated in the February to April period when the air dries and winds strengthen.
Ofunato saw just 2.5mm (0.1 inches) of rainfall in February, breaking the previous record low for the month of 4.4mm in 1967 and below the usual average of 41mm.
Some types of extreme weather have a well-established link with climate change, such as heatwaves or heavy rainfall. Other phenomena like droughts, snowstorms, tropical storms and forest fires can result from a combination of complex factors.
Thousands of people evacuated from parts of northern Japan as the country’s largest wildfire in three decades raged unabated Sunday after killing at least one person, officials said.
Around 2,000 people fled areas around the northern Japan city of Ofunato to stay with friends or relatives, while more than 1,200 evacuated to shelters, according to officials.
“We’re still examining the size of the affected area, but it is the biggest since the 1992 wildfire” in Kushiro, Hokkaido, a disaster management agency spokesman told media.
Some reports estimated the fire had spread over 1,800 hectares.
Aerial footage by NHK showed columns of white smoke billowing, four days after the blaze first materialized, with military helicopters trying to douse them.
One burned body has been discovered so far, with more than 80 buildings damaged and around 1,700 firefighters mobilized from across the country.
The number of wildfires has declined since the peak in the 1970s, according to government data, but there were about 1,300 across Japan in 2023 concentrated in the February to April period when the air dries and winds pick up. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
