Wildfires in Japan’s north worsen, 1,400 firefighters deployed

Japan has experienced relatively few wildfires compared with other parts of the world, but climate change has increased their frequency

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 on Sunday.

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 (3,393 acres) as of Sunday morning, up 7 per cent from a day earlier.

Homes at risk

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 Sunday 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 hosepipes to spray water onto their houses and surrounding foliage, hoping to ‌keep the flames at bay.