Two large forest fires in Japan’s Iwate region have forced authorities to order thousands of residents from their homes as flames neared populated areas. The blazes have consumed about 700 hectares (1,730 acres) since they began three days ago, local officials said.
About a dozen helicopters, more than 1,300 firefighters and troops from the Japan Self-Defense Forces were deployed to fight the fires. At least eight buildings have been destroyed, though residents in those structures had already evacuated. The town of Otsuchi is under particular threat, with roughly a third of its population ordered to leave. By Saturday morning, 1,541 households — 3,233 people — had been urged to evacuate.
Media reports say the two fires have scorched the third-largest area of any wildfire recorded in Japan. The incidents come as the country experiences increasingly dry winters. Last year, the Iwate city of Ofunato suffered the country’s worst wildfire in more than half a century, when 3,370 hectares burned.
Scientists warn that human-caused climate change, driven in part by burning fossil fuels, is producing longer, more intense droughts that create conditions favorable to wildfires.
Edited by: Sean Sinico