Overview
- Authorities confirmed one death after police found a 76-year-old man in his home, and a woman in her 50s was treated for minor burns.
- Roughly 170 to 188 residents evacuated as about 5 hectares burned and power was cut to hundreds of households.
- The blaze began Tuesday afternoon in Oita’s Saganoseki coastal district, raced through narrow lanes and old wooden houses, and jumped to a nearby uninhabited island.
- Hundreds of firefighters worked through the night while Self-Defense Forces helicopters conducted water drops to shield homes and a nearby forest.
- An investigation into the origin and spread is underway, and local media have described the fire as among Japan’s largest urban blazes in decades outside earthquake events.