TOKYO: One person was unaccounted for while 175 others were evacuated as a major fire engulfed a residential area in Japan, the local government said Wednesday (Nov 19).
Firefighters were still struggling to extinguish the blaze in the southern city of Oita as it spread to a forested mountain nearby, public broadcaster NHK reported.
Footage showed firefighters hosing ferocious flames as they ripped through houses on Tuesday night, while people were taken to a makeshift evacuation centre.
“The flames rose high, turning the sky red. The wind was strong. I never thought it would spread so much,” one man in the city on the southern island of Kyushu told NHK.
“The mountain was burning, the one behind,” said another man. “I brought with me my driver’s licence and smartphone.”
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