TOKYO: A forest fire broke out in a rural area north of Tokyo on Thursday, near another blaze burning for a fourth day.
One man suffered burns and was hospitalized, and firefighters have been deployed, said Hitomi Hirokami, an official at Kiryu in Gunma prefecture, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) northwest of Tokyo.
News footage showed smoke billowing upward from the hills.
Another fire has been raging in nearby Ashikaga in Tochigi prefecture, where 207 households have been asked to evacuate, said spokesman Minoru Takayama.
Firefighters were working on the ground, while military helicopters were dousing the area. No one has been injured.
The two fires are not directly related, but the area has not had much rain lately, causing flames to spread, officials said.
An evacuation order for Ashikaga was first issued Tuesday for about 50 households, underlining how the stricken area was growing.
The cause of the fire was unclear, but there’s a rest stop for hikers in an area where it’s believed to have started.
Three evacuation centers were set up with social distancing measures and disinfectants and everyone is wearing masks, Takayama said.
Helicopters, firefighters battle 2 forest fires in Japan
https://arab.news/n562z
Helicopters, firefighters battle 2 forest fires in Japan
- News footage showed smoke billowing upward from the hills
- An evacuation order for Ashikaga was first issued Tuesday for about 50 households
Bomb attacks on Thailand petrol stations injure 4: army
- Authorities did not announce any arrests or say who may be behind the attacks
BANGKOK: Assailants detonated bombs at nearly a dozen petrol stations in Thailand’s south early Sunday, injuring four people, the army said, the latest attacks in the insurgency-hit region.
A low-level conflict since 2004 has killed thousands of people as rebels in the Muslim-majority region bordering Malaysia battle for greater autonomy.
Several bombs exploded within a 40-minute period after midnight on Sunday, igniting 11 petrol stations across Thailand’s southernmost provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala, an army statement said.
Authorities did not announce any arrests or say who may be behind the attacks.
“It happened almost at the same time. A group of an unknown number of men came and detonated bombs which damaged fuel pumps,” Narathiwat Governor Boonchauy Homyamyen told local media, adding that one police officer was injured in the province.
A firefighter and two petrol station employees were injured in Pattani province, the army said.
All four were admitted to hospitals, none with serious injuries, a Thai army spokesman told AFP.
Thailand’s Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul told reporters that security agencies believed the attacks were a “signal” timed with elections for local administrators taking place on Sunday, and “not aimed at insurgency.”
The army’s commander in the south, Narathip Phoynok, told reporters he ordered security measures raised to the “maximum level in all areas” including at road checkpoints and borders.
The nation’s deep south is culturally distinct from the rest of Buddhist-majority Thailand, which took control of the region more than a century ago.
The area is heavily policed by Thai security forces — the usual targets of insurgent attacks.
