Wildfires that began on Sunday in Ehime and Okayama prefectures in western Japan have burned through over 900 hectares of land.
In the Ehime city of Imabari, 417 hectares had been burned as of Wednesday afternoon, while the fire in the city of Okayama had swept through some 559 hectares, authorities said.
The Ehime Prefectural Government decided the same day that Imabari and the neighboring city of Saijo should be made eligible for aid provided under the disaster relief law.
Evacuation orders were issued for 3,848 households in the Imabari fire, and for 1,091 households in Okayama and the neighboring city of Tamano in the Okayama fire. The city of Okayama lifted its evacuation order on Monday evening, but reissued the order on Tuesday night due to a lingering blaze.
Mount Kasamatsu, hit by the blaze in Ehime, experienced a different wildfire in 2008. A nearby resident in his 70s said "The area destroyed (this time) is larger than that 17 years ago."
In Imabari, some buildings of a local home construction company, including a factory, were destroyed.
"It was too late when I came," said Daisuke Toyama, 47, a relative of the company's manager, adding that it seems the local fire department did not expect the fire to spread to the area.
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