Sawt Falasteen - Rain, snow offer 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 residents to evacuate their homes.

It has engulfed about 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 in Hokkaido.

"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.

"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 told AFP.

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".

"The wind was really strong and I was so stunned that my pulse became erratic," she said.

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.

"Firefighters have been working on the ground through the night," a city official told AFP on Wednesday.

"We are hoping that snow, which started to fall this morning, will help," he said.

- Hot soak -

At least 84 buildings are believed to have been damaged, although details are still being assessed, according to the fire agency.

Almost 4,000 people had complied with orders to evacuate by late Tuesday.

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," 60-year-old Toyoshige Shida, 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.

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.

Ofunato received 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 well below the average of 41 millimetres.

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.

"In both cases the fires were preceded by hot summers, which increased evaporation and drying of vegetation, followed by large rainfall deficits that parched the landscape," he said.

"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.

"As the planet warms further we can expect to see fires in places where they have never before been a problem."

- 'High hopes' -

Around 2,000 firefighters, most deployed from other parts of Japan, 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," Ofunato Mayor Kiyoshi Fuchigami told reporters.

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

Sasaki attended high school in Ofunato after losing his father and grandparents in the 2011 tsunami.

D.Qudsi--SF-PST