A forest fire in Okayama Prefecture has been contained, Masao Omori, mayor of the city of Okayama, the capital of the western prefecture, announced Friday.
The fire, which broke out last Sunday, ravaged some 565 hectares, making it the biggest ever in the prefecture, burning six homes and warehouses.
Fire authorities will continue activities in order to fully extinguish the blaze.
Evacuation orders, issued to up to 2,133 people in the prefecture, were all lifted on Friday.
The city of Imabari, Ehime Prefecture, also plans to declare early next week that a forest fire there has been contained. The fire also broke out last Sunday.
The area ravaged by the Ehime fire remained unchanged from Thursday at about 442 hectares as of Friday.
"We want to declare (the fire) contained after checks over the weekend that we can stably control it," Imabari Mayor Shigeki Tokunaga told a prefectural meeting.
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