Burning Forest Area In Northeast Japan Reaches 1,800 Hectares, Firefighters Still Struggling To Put Out Fire

JAKARTA - Firefighters are struggling to extinguish the increasingly widespread forest fires in the northeastern region of Japan.

The NHK on Sunday, March 2, reported that the burning forest area had reached 1,800 hectares after the fire broke out in the city of Ofunato, Iwate prefecture, although the air and land fire had been going on for days.

Nearly 1,700 officers from 450 fire fighting units in Japan have been deployed to control the blaze that has spread in five days since Wednesday, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency.

The fire has spread to a wider and more intensively in the northern and western regions with an expansion of about 400 hectares from the previous morning.

Air and land operations are underway to extinguish the fire because smoke from the forest moves into residential areas.

Video footage shown by NHK shows a Japanese Self-Defense Forces helicopter pouring water in the forest area of Ofunato.

Authorities have issued evacuation orders to 4,600 residents in 16 districts. More than 1,200 people have fled to various facilities in the city.

A corpse suspected of being a man was found on Thursday. At least 84 buildings have been damaged by the forest fire.

A thorough assessment of the damage is expected to take time as outage efforts continue.