Rain offers relief as Japan battles worst wildfire in 50 years
By AFP
March 4, 2025
Firefighters battle flames near the city of Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture
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Tomohiro Osaki, with Kyoko Hasegawa in Tokyo
Wet weather looked poised to offer relief Wednesday as Japan battled its worst wildfire in half a century in a northern region hit by record-low rainfall.
The blaze around the northern city of Ofunato has killed one person and forced nearly 4,000 to evacuate their homes.
It has engulfed around 2,900 hectares (7,170 acres) — over eight times the area of New York City’s Central Park — making it Japan’s largest wildfire since at least 1975, when 2,700 hectares burnt in Kushiro on Hokkaido island.
But rain and snow were falling Wednesday, AFP reporters saw, as several columns of white smoke billowed from a mountain where the blaze has been raging.
“Firefighters have been working on the ground through the night to extinguish the fire,” a city official told AFP on Wednesday.
“We are hoping that snow, which started to fall this morning, will help” put out the blaze, he added.
At least 84 buildings are believed to have been damaged, although details are still being assessed, according to the fire agency.
As of late Tuesday, almost 4,000 people living nearby had complied with orders to evacuate.
Japan endured its hottest summer on record last year, as climate change pushes up temperatures worldwide.
The number of wildfires in the country has declined since its 1970s peak, but there were about 1,300 in 2023, concentrated in the period from February to April when the air dries out and winds pick up.
Ofunato had just 2.5 millimetres (0.1 inches) of rainfall in February — breaking the previous record low for the month of 4.4 millimetres in 1967 and falling well below the usual average of 41 millimetres.
Since Friday, “there has been no rain — or very little, if any” in Ofunato, a local weather agency official told AFP late Tuesday.
Around 2,000 firefighters — most deployed from other parts of the country, including Tokyo — have been working from the air and ground in the fire-hit zone in the Iwate region, which was devastated in 2011 by a deadly tsunami.
Some types of extreme weather have a well-established link with climate change, such as heatwaves and heavy rainfall.
Other phenomena like droughts, snowstorms, tropical storms and forest fires can result from a combination of complex factors.
Japanese baseball prodigy Roki Sasaki, who recently joined the Los Angeles Dodgers, has offered a 10-million-yen ($67,000) donation and 500 sets of bedding to people affected by the wildfire, Ofunato city posted on X.
Sasaki was a high school student there, after losing his father and grandparents in the huge 2011 tsunami.
Tomohiro Osaki, with Kyoko Hasegawa in Tokyo
Wet weather looked poised to offer relief Wednesday as Japan battled its worst wildfire in half a century in a northern region hit by record-low rainfall.
The blaze around the northern city of Ofunato has killed one person and forced nearly 4,000 to evacuate their homes.
It has engulfed around 2,900 hectares (7,170 acres) — over eight times the area of New York City’s Central Park — making it Japan’s largest wildfire since at least 1975, when 2,700 hectares burnt in Kushiro on Hokkaido island.
But rain and snow were falling Wednesday, AFP reporters saw, as several columns of white smoke billowed from a mountain where the blaze has been raging.
“Firefighters have been working on the ground through the night to extinguish the fire,” a city official told AFP on Wednesday.
“We are hoping that snow, which started to fall this morning, will help” put out the blaze, he added.
At least 84 buildings are believed to have been damaged, although details are still being assessed, according to the fire agency.
As of late Tuesday, almost 4,000 people living nearby had complied with orders to evacuate.
Japan endured its hottest summer on record last year, as climate change pushes up temperatures worldwide.
The number of wildfires in the country has declined since its 1970s peak, but there were about 1,300 in 2023, concentrated in the period from February to April when the air dries out and winds pick up.
Ofunato had just 2.5 millimetres (0.1 inches) of rainfall in February — breaking the previous record low for the month of 4.4 millimetres in 1967 and falling well below the usual average of 41 millimetres.
Since Friday, “there has been no rain — or very little, if any” in Ofunato, a local weather agency official told AFP late Tuesday.
Around 2,000 firefighters — most deployed from other parts of the country, including Tokyo — have been working from the air and ground in the fire-hit zone in the Iwate region, which was devastated in 2011 by a deadly tsunami.
Some types of extreme weather have a well-established link with climate change, such as heatwaves and heavy rainfall.
Other phenomena like droughts, snowstorms, tropical storms and forest fires can result from a combination of complex factors.
Japanese baseball prodigy Roki Sasaki, who recently joined the Los Angeles Dodgers, has offered a 10-million-yen ($67,000) donation and 500 sets of bedding to people affected by the wildfire, Ofunato city posted on X.
Sasaki was a high school student there, after losing his father and grandparents in the huge 2011 tsunami.
Thousands flee after Japan’s biggest wildfire in decades
By AFP
March 1, 2025
A helicopter is pictured above the wildfire near Ofunato
By AFP
March 1, 2025
A helicopter is pictured above the wildfire near Ofunato
- Copyright JIJI Press/AFP/File STR
Thousands of people evacuated from parts of northern Japan as the country’s largest wildfire in three decades raged unabated Sunday after killing at least one person, officials said.
Around 2,000 people fled areas around the northern Japan city of Ofunato to stay with friends or relatives, while more than 1,200 evacuated to shelters, according to officials.
“We’re still examining the size of the affected area, but it is the biggest since the 1992 wildfire” in Kushiro, Hokkaido, a disaster management agency spokesman told AFP Saturday.
Some reports estimated the fire had spread over 1,800 hectares.
Aerial footage by NHK showed columns of white smoke billowing, four days after the blaze first materialised, with military helicopters trying to douse them.
One burned body has been discovered so far, with more than 80 buildings damaged and around 1,700 firefighters mobilised from across the country.
The number of wildfires has declined since the peak in the 1970s, according to government data, but there were about 1,300 across Japan in 2023 — concentrated in the February to April period when the air dries and winds pick up
Thousands of people evacuated from parts of northern Japan as the country’s largest wildfire in three decades raged unabated Sunday after killing at least one person, officials said.
Around 2,000 people fled areas around the northern Japan city of Ofunato to stay with friends or relatives, while more than 1,200 evacuated to shelters, according to officials.
“We’re still examining the size of the affected area, but it is the biggest since the 1992 wildfire” in Kushiro, Hokkaido, a disaster management agency spokesman told AFP Saturday.
Some reports estimated the fire had spread over 1,800 hectares.
Aerial footage by NHK showed columns of white smoke billowing, four days after the blaze first materialised, with military helicopters trying to douse them.
One burned body has been discovered so far, with more than 80 buildings damaged and around 1,700 firefighters mobilised from across the country.
The number of wildfires has declined since the peak in the 1970s, according to government data, but there were about 1,300 across Japan in 2023 — concentrated in the February to April period when the air dries and winds pick up
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