Japan has asked around 4,600 people to evacuate as the country’s largest wildfire in more than thirty years rages near the northern city of Ofunato.
The fire has spread across 2,100 hectares. One person has been confirmed dead, and at least 84 homes have been damaged.
“We're still examining the size of the affected area, but it is the biggest since the 1992 wildfire,” said a spokesperson for Japan’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency. A 1992 wildfire in Kushiro, Hokkaido burned 1,030 hectares.
The fire began on Wednesday, and has grown by around 400 hectares since Saturday. Its cause is under investigation by the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.
Japan’s government gave evacuation orders to 4,600 residents near Ofunato. Around 2,000 left the area, with an additional 1,200 in shelters over the weekend.
Almost 1,700 firefighters have been deployed from across Japan to combat the wildfire.
Ofunato is located on Honshu’s northeastern coast, around 500 kilometres north of Tokyo.
The town of 35,000 saw record low levels of rain in February, at just 2.5 millimetres. Its previous February low was 4.4mm, set in 1967.
Two smaller wildfires also continue to rage in Japan. In Yamanashi Prefecture, west of Tokyo, a wildfire that started on Wednesday has burned at least 120 hectares, while a fire in Nagano that began on Friday has now grown to 100 hectares.
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