Imabari Wildfires
(There is no sound in this clip.)
Note: this video is obviously not mine. I was not able to embed it from the source, and do not know if it will expire. It is a Mainichi News video clip, originally found here. The caption reproduced and then translated below is attached to the clip on the original site.
２４日午後５時１０分ごろ、愛媛県今治市朝倉上の笠松山（標高３５７メートル）で山火事が起きていると、市消防本部に１１９番通報があった。２５日午後４時半現在、山林約９１ヘクタールを焼いて延焼中で鎮火のめどはたっていない。現場は瀬戸内海国立公園に含まれ、一番近い民家まで約１５０メートルに迫っているという。
四国４県や自衛隊のヘリコプター計約１０機と地元消防署などが日没まで消火に当たった。今治市は２４日午後９時、周辺５０世帯に避難勧告を出し２世帯（２人）が避難、２５日午前１１時には新たに２世帯（３人）に避難勧告を出し３人が避難した。
【撮影・毎日新聞航空部】
In Ehime Prefecture, at roughly 5:10 P.M. JST on August 24th a tip came into the Imabari city fire department via a 119 call reporting that a brush fire was burning on Mt. Kasamatsu (357 meters above sea level), located in the Asakura area. It is now 4:30 P.M. on the 25th, and approximately 91 hectares have burned as the fire continues to spread. It is uncertain when and if it will be extinguished. The affected area is part of the Seto Inland Sea National Park; it is said that the closest private homes are approximately 150 meters from the blaze.
10 helicopters from the four prefectures of Shikoku and the Self Defense Force and the local fire
department battled the fire until sunset. The city of Imabari issued evacuation advisories at 9 P.M. on the 24th to 50 nearby households; 2 complied (2 people total). At 11 A.M. on the 25th, 2 more households (3 people total) were advised to evacuate; 3 people did so.【Filmed by the Mainichi Newspaper Air Division】
An English language news release is available via the Japan Times Online, for those who are interested. And while I’m tossing out links, here are some Japanese language news blurbs about the fire from Asahi and Mainichi.
Lastly, let me say, no, I was not anywhere near the fire. I had no idea there was a fire until Tuesday. I live on an island off the coast of Imabari. A fire would be hard pressed to make it out to me. And as far as I know there were no injuries (nor burned down property). So, no worries, folks. 
on August 28th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
You could see it from where I am in Tanbara. Although I didn’t actually notice it until monday when all you could see was huge amounts of smoke. It looked very pretty once the sun started to set as well; dotted with army helicopters.
Toms last blog post was: Extreme Tea Ceremony
on August 28th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
Tom - dang. I really am shocked that I missed the story when it got going. I mean…how did I miss it?
on August 28th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Thank you for introducing it.
I live in Imabari-shi, Ehime, Japan with a Japanese.
My English is clumsy, but is glad if what I think about comes.
I wish so that it is not generated in the world to seem to be Imabari.
By your introduction, I may prevent world all.
I pray for peace.
on August 29th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Soh-wn - Thanks for your comment! And thank you for the links you posted to my blog. I still live in Imabari, too, by the way. Pleased to meet a fellow Imabarian blogger.
on August 31st, 2008 at 8:54 am
Which way to the prevailing winds blow. I live in Utah, and we got a lot of smoke from the fires in California earlier this year. We’ve even had a dust storm that originated in Mongolia and blew across the Pacific. It made our skies look smoky for several days.
I need a good map of Japan so I can find the places you refer to. I also find “prefecture” a difficult term to use since there is nothing in my experience with that name. I’ve looked up the definition and it still seems strange. Is it closer to a U.S. state or a county/parish? From my reading on Wikipedia, I think I’d just as soon use -ken at the end of the name and explain what that means than clutter it up with words I associate with the Catholic and Anglican churches.
on October 4th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
AST: A prefecture is the first-level subdivision in Japan, so logically it is most similar to a US state, Canadian province, or what the Brits call a “country” (e.g., Wales). However, Japan has less total land area, so the prefectures are geographically smaller than most US states. Ehime is perhaps about the size of Delaware, I guess.
The big problem I have with detailed maps of Japan that I can find online is they usually don’t have any furigana, so if you don’t know all eighty billion kanji you have no way to read them at all. However, as best I can figure, the Hakata in question is at about 34 degrees 12 minutes 16 seconds north, 133 degrees 6 minutes 32 seconds east. If you look up Imabari on the Wikipedia, there’s a decent medium-resolution map. The big southern island on that map is Shikoku, one of the four main islands of Japan, and the coastline you see on the top edge of the map is part of Honshu, the closest thing Japan has to a mainland. Hiroshima is to the northwest.
Jonadab the Unsightly Ones last blog post was: Bad Analogies 101
on October 7th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Jonadab - the easiest way I can tell people where I am is to link them to a Google map and tell them to zoom out.
Have you ever lived in Japan?