Over 2,000 firefighters, supported by military helicopters, are battling a massive forest fire in northern Japan’s Iwate region, marking the country’s largest such blaze in three decades, Al Jazeera reports.
The fire, fueled by record low rainfall and exacerbated by the effects of climate change, has forced the evacuation of thousands of residents.
As of Monday, around 4,600 residents remain under evacuation advisories. The fire, which ignited near the city of Ofunato last Thursday, has already claimed at least one life.
“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 stated in parliament.
The Fire and Disaster Management Agency (FDMA) reports that the fire has consumed roughly 5,200 acres of land. Firefighters from 14 different regions of Japan, including Tokyo, have been deployed to combat the blaze, utilizing a fleet of 16 helicopters, including those provided by the military, to drop water on the flames.
By Sunday, the fire had already damaged an estimated 84 buildings, although a full assessment of the damage is still underway, according to the FDMA. Approximately 2,000 residents have sought refuge with friends and relatives, while over 1,200 have evacuated to designated shelters.
Footage broadcast on national broadcaster NHK showed alarming scenes of orange flames raging close to buildings and thick white smoke billowing into the sky near Ofunato.
The fire coincides with extremely dry conditions in the region. Ofunato recorded a mere 0.1 inches of rainfall in February, surpassing the previous record low of 4.4mm set in 1967 and falling far short of the average 41mm for the month. The blaze also follows last year’s record-breaking hot summer across Japan, further highlighting the impact of climate change on the region.
While the overall number of wildfires in Japan has decreased since the 1970s, government data shows that the country still recorded approximately 1,300 such incidents in 2023. These fires are typically concentrated during the February to April period, when air humidity is low and winds are strong.
Experts note that while some forms of extreme weather, such as heatwaves and heavy rainfall, have a direct link to climate change, other events, like droughts, snowstorms, tropical storms, and forest fires, are often the result of a complex interplay of factors.
