The blaze around the northern city of Ofunato in the Iwate region has raged for more than a week, killing one person and forcing nearly 4,000 residents to evacuate their homes.
“The fire was like nothing I’ve seen before. It was towering and spreading fast,“ said Mitsuo Otsubo, 85, who fled his home to stay with a relative.
An 86-year-old woman, who declined to be identified, said she had seen “a huge amount of smoke rising up and then the fire”.
Columns of white smoke billowed from a mountain through the rain and snow on Wednesday, AFP reporters saw. More wet weather was forecast through Thursday.
“We are hoping that snow, which started to fall this morning, will help,“ he said.
At least 84 buildings are believed to have been damaged, although details are still being assessed, according to the fire agency.
The owner of an “onsen” hot spring inn voluntarily opened his facility for free to evacuees.
He said he built the inn after seeing how people suffered in the wake of a huge earthquake and tsunami in 2011 that killed at least 340 people in Ofunato alone.
Japan endured its hottest summer on record last year as climate change pushes up temperatures worldwide.
However, there were about 1,300 in 2023, concentrated in the period from February to April when the air dries out and winds pick up.
Greg Mullins, formerly fire and rescue commissioner for the Australian state of New South Wales, told AFP that the Japan fire and the recent Los Angeles wildfires were “highly unusual” because they were in winter.
“This is a common by-product of climate change that is being seen worldwide,“ said Mullins, a founder of the Emergency Leaders for Climate Action group.
'High hopes'
“The fact that teams of firefighters are being reinforced every day, and that the fire has been going on for a week, shows the extent of the dry weather and the difficulties we are facing,“ Ofunato Mayor Kiyoshi Fuchigami told reporters.
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.
Sasaki attended high school in Ofunato after losing his father and grandparents in the 2011 tsunami.
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