Over 900 Hectares Destroyed in Ehime, Okayama Wildfires

Okayama/Matsuyama, Ehime Pref., March 27 (Jiji Press)--Over 900 hectares have been destroyed in total in wildfires that began on Sunday in Ehime and Okayama prefectures in western Japan.

In the Ehime city of Imabari, the total area burned by the fire had reached 417 hectares as of 2 p.m. Wednesday, while the fire in the city of Okayama swept through some 559 hectares.

The Ehime prefectural government on the same day decided that Imabari and the neighboring city of Saijo be eligible for aid provided under the disaster relief law.

Evacuation orders were issued for 7,494 residents of 3,848 households in the Imabari fire and for 2,133 residents of 1,091 households in Okayama and the neighboring city of Tamano in the Okayama fire.

Mount Kasamatsu, hit by the blaze in Ehime, experienced another wildfire in 2008. A nearby resident in his 70s said, "The area destroyed (this time) is larger than that 17 years ago."

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]