Japan has deployed 1,400 firefighters and dozens of Self-Defence Force personnel to battle mountain blazes that have been raging in the north for five days and threaten to reach homes in the picturesque coastal town of Otsuchi, officials said yesterday.
Fanned by dry, windy weather, two more wildfires broke out elsewhere in the north on Sunday – one in Kitakata city and the other in Nagaoka, potentially stretching firefighting resources thin as local authorities send personnel to neighbouring areas.
The area burned by the Otsuchi fires reached 1,373 hectares as of yesterday, up seven per cent from a day earlier.
The fires threaten residential districts of Otsuchi on the Pacific Coast – a town that lost nearly a 10th of its population in one of Japan’s worst disasters, the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Authorities expanded the scope of evacuation orders to 1,558 households or 3,257 residents by yesterday evening, roughly a third of Otsuchi’s population.
“Although the Self-Defence Forces are fighting the fires from the sky (with helicopters), the dry weather and winds are helping the fires expand,” Otsuchi Mayor Kozo Hirano told a Press conference.
Some residents used hoses to spray water onto their houses and surrounding foliage, hoping to keep the flames at bay.
“I am prepared to evacuate by my car at any time. Fire won’t be able to catch up to us since it does not move as fast as a tsunami,” said resident Shigeki Fujiwara, 67.
Flames up in the mountain were visible from his home, and while his family has already been evacuated, he said he had chosen to stay behind because he was worried about the house.
The only casualty to date has been one minor injury suffered when a person fell at an evacuation centre, Japan’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency said on its website.
Rain is expected in some parts of Iwate prefecture’s southern coastal region, where Otsuchi is located, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.
The cause of the Otsuchi fires is not clear and is under investigation.
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