A wildfire that began over the weekend in Ehime Prefecture continued to spread Tuesday as extinguishing efforts were under way.

A separate fire in Okayama Prefecture that began around the same time, meanwhile, has subsided, and evacuation orders have been lifted in the affected area.

The fire that began on Sunday afternoon in Imabari, Ehime Prefecture, had spread to cover 171 hectares by Tuesday, although no building damage has been reported. One person has reportedly sustained minor injuries from the fire.

Evacuation orders remained in place for 553 people across 1,079 households in Imabari, while 792 people across 1,506 households were under the same order in the neighboring city of Saijo.

Continuing from the day earlier, local authorities, along with the Self-Defense Forces, deployed helicopters for aerial extinguishing work on Tuesday.

The Okayama fire, which had burned through 250 hectares and destroyed at least six buildings in its early hours, has not expanded, and the city of Okayama lifted all evacuation orders by Monday afternoon.

The city continued to deploy helicopters from nearby prefectural fire departments and SDF units on Tuesday to prevent the fire from spreading and to extinguish it as soon as possible.

The two wildfires came amid a stretch of extremely dry weather that has brought on a series of fires across the country over the past several weeks.

Last month, a historically large wildfire broke out in Ofunato, Iwate Prefecture, which burned 2,900 hectares, or 9% of the city’s overall land, and continued for around a week despite extinguishing efforts. The fire killed one person and damaged 210 buildings.

In South Korea, too, a severe forest fire that began on Friday continues to rage on after having destroyed about 15,000 hectares. It also caused at least four deaths and displaced 3,300 people from their homes, according to Yonhap News.