Fire has already destroyed 1,200 hectares
Japan continues to try to contain a forest fire that has burned the largest area since 1992, in the northeast of the archipelago.
The fire, which launched on Wednesday, currently has several active fronts, damaged more than 80 buildings and forced the evacuation of zones around the city of Ounato, in the Iwate Forest Region.
According to the Japanese disaster response and fires (FDMA), 1,200 hectares have already been devastated by the flames.
“We are still trying to determine the affected area, but it is the largest since 1992,” a FDMA spokesman said to the France-Presse news agency.
In 1992, a fire destroyed 1,030 hectares in Kushiro, Hokkaido, in the north of the country.
About 1,700 firefighters were mobilized across the country to try to extinguish the flames, which continue to spread, as shown in the aerial images of the Japanese public broadcaster NHK.
The cause of the fire is not yet known, but it is believed to have started in a work shed and spread from there to a wooded zone, where dry meteorological conditions favored its propagation.
This is the third fire in a week affecting the southern coastal areas of Iwate, which have been on alert for dry weather since February 18.
The last fire in the Iwate region was fueled by “strong winds,” the mayor of the Chamber of Ounato, Kiyoshi Fuchigami, said on Wednesday.
In 2023, Japan suffered about 1,300 forest fires, concentrated from February to April, when the air becomes dry and winds increase.
The year 2024 was also the hottest ever recorded in Japan, according to the National Meteorological Agency, following the increase of extreme events worldwide due to climate change.
