Worst fires since 1992 in Japan have forced the removal of two thousand people – observer

About two thousand people had to abandon their dwellings in northern Japan, where forest fires have already burned the largest area since 1992 and did a dead, the Japanese authorities said on Sunday.

The Japanese disasters and fires response agency (FDMA) said the areas around the city of Ounato were evacuated in the Iwate Forest Region.

Many took refuge with friends or family, and more than 1,200 were taken to shelters, added FDMA.

At least one person died in the flames, which triggered on Wednesday, and also damaged over 80 buildings.

“We are still trying to determine the affected area, but it is the largest since 1992,” FDMA spokesman said on Sunday to the France-Presse news agency.

“We are still trying to determine the affected area, but it is the largest since 1992,” said FDMA spokesman for the AFP news agency on Saturday.

In 1992, a fire destroyed 1,030 hectares in Kushiro, Hokkaido, in the north of the country.

According to the Japanese press, the fire has already spread to 1,800 hectares. Aerial images of the Japanese public broadcaster NHK showed military helicopters to fly over white tobacco clouds, four days after the beginning of the fire.

About 1,700 firefighters were mobilized across the country to try to extinguish the flames.

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.

According to government data, the number of forest fires decreased from peak in the 1970s, but by 2023 Japan suffered about 1,300 forest fires, concentrated from February to April, when 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.