Large fire hits residential area in northwestern Japanese city
A massive fire has struck the Japanese city of Itoigawa, prompting local authorities to seek help from the country’s armed forces to put out the inferno.
The blaze engulfed about 140 houses and other buildings after it started at around 10:30 a.m. local time (0130 GMT), according to media on Thursday.
A local fire department authority said the flames showed no sign of dying down as night fell on the city, which is about 340 kilometers northwest of the capital, Tokyo.
In the afternoon, the government dispatched a total of 155 army personnel and 25 vehicles to the city to help control the blaze.
Until now, there have been no reports of fatalities, but two women were injured in the fire that hit a residential area of the coastal city.
“This was an area that was crowded with wooden structures, which is a type of townscape prone for fire to spread quickly,” Ai Sekizawa, professor at Tokyo University of Science and an expert on fire protection, told the media.
“On top of that, there was a strong wind,” he added. “This creates a condition that, once a fire starts, it can spread quickly, while on the other hand the fire can become difficult to contain.”
Residents of hundreds of houses in the area had been ordered to evacuate, local officials said.
TV footage showed orange flames and grey smoke from the fire rising into the sky despite efforts by firefighters to extinguish the blaze.
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