Guduru Ajay bhargav
Wildfires have impacted multiple areas in western Japan, resulting in injuries to at least two individuals, prompting the evacuation of numerous residents, and causing damage to several homes as hundreds of firefighters worked to control the expanding fires in the mountainous regions.
The blazes ignited on Sunday in the western towns of Okayama, Imabari, and Aso, rapidly consuming hundreds of hectares (acres) of land. In Okayama, six homes were affected by a fire that originated on Mount Kaigara, which scorched 250 hectares (600 acres) of forest. In Imabari, located in the Ehime prefecture on Shikoku Island, a firefighter sustained minor injuries due to the fire.
Firefighters, along with defense helicopters, deployed water to combat the flames; however, as of Monday afternoon, the fires in both prefectures remained uncontrolled. Experts have attributed the wildfires in Okayama and Imabari to dry weather conditions and the accumulation of dried leaves on the forest floor.
A smaller fire was reported in the mountainous village of Aso in Kumamoto prefecture on the southern island of Kyushu earlier on Sunday, but it was extinguished by early Monday, according to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency. One individual suffered minor injuries, and local reports indicated that the fire ignited while residents were burning trash.
These wildfires occurred just weeks after significant fires in the northern city of Ofunato, which resulted in one fatality and damaged over 200 homes and buildings, consuming 2,900 hectares (7,170 acres), nearly ten percent of the city’s land area.
