Sawt Falasteen - Rain offers hope in Japan's worst wildfire in 50 years

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 people to evacuate their homes.

It has engulfed around 2,900 hectares (7,170 acres) -- around half the size of Manhattan -- making it the largest wildfire since at least 1975, when 2,700 hectares burnt on Hokkaido island.

"The fire was nothing I've seen before. It was towering and spreading fast," local resident Mitsuo Otsubo, 85, who fled his home to stay with a relative, told AFP.

"It didn't rain or snow at all this year... Thank goodness it rained today though. I can only hope it will help contain the situation," the seaweed and scallop farmer said.

"I saw a huge amount of smoke rising up and then the fire. The wind was really strong and I was so stunned that my pulse became erratic," said an 86-year-old woman who declined to be named.

Rain and snow were falling Wednesday, AFP reporters saw, as several columns of white smoke billowed from a mountain. More wet weather was forecast through Thursday.

"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.

- Hot soak -

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 had complied with orders to evacuate.

The owner of an "onsen" hot spring inn voluntarily opened his facility for free to evacuees.

"Not being able to bathe yourself on top of dealing with the chaos of life in a shelter definitely wears you down," Toyoshige Shida, 60, of Ofunato Onsen, told AFP.

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.

- Dry weather -

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.

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.

- 'High hopes' -

"We are working towards deterring, suppressing and extinguishing the fire with the greatest possible firefighting capability," Ofunato Mayor Kiyoshi Fuchigami told reporters.

Around 2,000 firefighters -- most deployed from other parts of the country, including Tokyo -- have been working from the air and on the ground.

"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," Fuchigami said.

He added he has "high hopes" that snow and rain would help extinguish the fire.

The topography of the mountainous coastal area, with steep slopes and narrow and winding roads, was hampering the operation.

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, Ofunato city posted on X.

Sasaki was a high school student there, after losing his father and grandparents in the 2011 tsunami.

R.AbuNasser--SF-PST