Thousands flee as Japan’s biggest wildfire in decades rages on
An area of at least 2,100 hectares in Ofunato, Iwate prefecture, has been destroyed by the blaze. At least one person has died
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1 dead, thousands flee as Japan’s biggest wildfire in decades continues to rage
The blaze on the outskirts of Ofunato in Iwate prefecture – the fourth in northeast Japan since February 19 – has destroyed at least 84 buildings, causing the evacuation of nearly 4,600 people.
More than 1,700 personnel were deployed in the affected areas as of Sunday following an appeal by the local government to firefighting and emergency agencies. The disaster management agency later requested additional personnel to deal with the blaze.
Climate analysts have blamed the fires on an arid winter on the country’s east coast amid erratic weather patterns.
“There is no question that this winter’s weather has been unusual,” said Kevin Short, a naturalist and former professor of cultural anthropology at Tokyo University of Information Sciences.
“There has been extremely heavy snow on the Sea of Japan side of the country but very dry conditions on the Pacific coast,” he told This Week in Asia. “There was virtually zero precipitation in the Kanto and Tohoku regions of eastern Japan throughout February, and that has left trees very dry and easy to burn.”
