OTSUCHI: Japan has deployed 1,400 firefighters and 100 Self-Defense Force personnel to battle mountain blazes in the northern part of the country, with the fires, now burning on Sunday for a fifth straight day, continuing to threaten a picturesque coastal town.
The area consumed by the fires reached 1,373 hectares (3,393 acres) as of early Sunday morning, up 7 percent from a day earlier.
The fires threaten residential districts of Otsuchi on the Pacific Coast — a town that lost nearly a tenth of its population in one of Japan’s worst disasters, the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
Evacuation orders are in place for 1,541 households or 3,233 residents, roughly a third of Otsuchi’s population.
“Although the Self-Defense 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.
One Otsuchi resident said he worried about the damage the wildfire could inflict.
“A fire burns everything down. With a tsunami, you might have something left after the destruction,” Yoshinori Komatsu, 74, said as he watched Self-Defense Force helicopters dump water over fires in the distance.
The only casualty to date has been one minor injury suffered when a person fell at an evacuation center, Japan’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency said on its website.
No rain is expected in the region on Sunday or Monday, but a brief shower is forecast on Tuesday, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency.
The cause of the fires is unclear and under investigation.
Japan deploys 1,400 firefighters to battle raging wildfires in the north
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Japan deploys 1,400 firefighters to battle raging wildfires in the north
- Evacuation orders are in place for roughly a third of Otsuchi’s population
