Firefighters in Japan are struggling to contain the country’s most severe wildfire in nearly 50 years, which has left one person dead and forced the evacuation of nearly 4,000 residents.
Thick white smoke billowed from a forested area near the northern city of Ofunato, aerial footage showed, five days after the blaze began amid record-low rainfall.
The fire follows Japan’s hottest summer on record last year, and climate change continues to raise global temperatures.
As of Tuesday morning, the wildfire had scorched approximately 2,600 hectares (6,400 acres), according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency – an area more than seven times the size of New York’s Central Park. It marks Japan’s largest wildfire since 1975, when 2,700 hectares burned in Kushiro on Hokkaido island.
Authorities estimate the blaze has damaged at least 80 buildings as of Sunday, though assessments are ongoing.
Firefighting efforts
Military and fire department helicopters are working to contain the fire, a city official said, though there are no signs yet that it is under control.
“Currently, there is no indication that the fire is being contained,” the official told reporters.
Snowfall is expected overnight, transitioning to rain, but it remains unclear whether the precipitation will aid in extinguishing the flames.
“The poor weather may prevent helicopters from dropping water,” the official warned.
Approximately 2,000 firefighters – including reinforcements from across the country, including Tokyo – are engaged in air and ground operations. The blaze rages in Iwate Prefecture, a region devastated by the deadly 2011 tsunami.
Authorities issued an evacuation advisory to about 4,600 residents, with 3,939 already seeking shelter, local officials reported.
The number of wildfires in Japan has declined since peaking in the 1970s, but the country still recorded around 1,300 wildfires in 2023, mostly between February and April, when dry air and strong winds create hazardous conditions.
Ofunato received just 2.5 millimeters (0.1 inches) of rainfall in February, breaking the city’s previous record low of 4.4 millimeters in 1967 and far below the average of 41 millimeters.
“Since Friday, there has been no rain – or very little, if any,” a local weather agency official told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The wildfire has disrupted business operations, with Taiheiyo Cement halting production at its Ofunato plant, which lies within the evacuation advisory zone. Confectionery company Saitoseika warned that if its headquarters or factories are declared no-go zones, it may be forced to suspend production.
Japanese baseball prodigy Roki Sasaki, who recently signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers, has donated 10 million yen ($67,000) and 500 sets of bedding to aid those affected, Ofunato’s city government announced on X.
Sasaki, who attended high school in Ofunato, lost his father and grandparents in the catastrophic 2011 tsunami.
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