Japan deploys 1,400 firefighters to battle raging wildfires in the north

TOKYO: Japan has deployed 1,400 firefighters and 100 Self-Defence 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 as of early Sunday morning, up seven per cent 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-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.

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-Defence 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 centre, ⁠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.