A fire rages through a residential area in the Saganoseki district of Oita city on Nov. 18. (Hisashi Omura)

Photo/Illutration A fire spreads through a residential area of Oita city's Saganoseki district on Nov. 18. (Hisashi Omura)

OITA—Firefighters continued to battle a blaze in Oita city’s Saganoseki district on Nov. 19 after a body was found in the remains, the Oita prefectural government said.

An officer from the Oita-Higashi Police Station discovered a person in a state of cardiopulmonary arrest at the scene. A doctor confirmed the person’s death at 12:38 p.m.

The cause of death and the individual’s gender were not immediately known.

According to the prefectural police, they have been unable to contact a 76-year-old man in the area.

The fire had spread over an area of about 48,900 square meters and burned at least 170 buildings, government officials said.

A woman in her 50s suffered minor injuries to her airway, according to the prefectural government.

The fire broke out on the evening of Nov. 18 in a residential area about 25 kilometers east of downtown Oita.

Local officials said a resident in the Saganoseki district made an emergency call at 5:45 p.m., saying, “I can see houses burning.”

According to the prefecture’s disaster response headquarters, 170 people from 110 households had evacuated to the Saganoseki community center as of 7 a.m. on Nov. 19.

About 270 households in the surrounding area were without electricity as of 8:30 a.m.

Around 6 a.m. on Nov. 19, a man in his 40s tried to return home from the evacuation center but could not get close because the area was cordoned off.

White smoke was rising, and local fire brigade members were rushing to douse the blaze, he said.

Seeing the district being transformed by the fire, the man was devastated.

“I knew it was happening, but it’s really come to this,” he said.

The man said he learned about the fire after he heard a loud banging on the door when he was eating dinner around 5:40 p.m.

“There’s a fire,” a neighbor yelled. “Please escape.” 

When he looked outside, he saw flames shooting up like pillars from a building. The wind was strong, and large embers were swirling up toward the mountains. 

He grabbed his wallet, smartphone and emergency backpack, and jumped into a car with his mother.

The flames were already close by, and he could hear loud pops that sounded like explosions.

A gale advisory was in effect for marine areas, including Saganoseki and central Oita Prefecture, from the morning of Nov. 17 until early on Nov. 19.

Firefighters said the strong winds accelerated the spread of the blaze by carrying sparks and flames to nearby areas.

According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, cold air flowing in from the Asian continent likely strengthened the northwesterly winds in the area.

But from Nov. 19, the influence of the cold air is expected to weaken, and the strong winds will likely subside, the agency said. 

The site of the fire is on a slope near the edge of the Saganoseki Peninsula.

The city’s fire department initially responded with 17 fire trucks. The Oita city government later requested assistance from the fire departments of six other municipalities within the prefecture, including Beppu, Usuki and Saiki.

They were all working at the scene on the morning of Nov. 19.

Disaster prevention helicopters from the Oita and Kumamoto prefectural governments were also engaged in information gathering and firefighting activities.

Oita Prefecture set up a disaster response headquarters late on Nov. 18.

The following day, it decided to apply the Disaster Relief Law to Oita city and requested help from the Self-Defense Forces.

The Saganoseki district was also unusually dry when the fire broke out. It received only 10.0 millimeters of total rainfall over the previous 10 days, about 35 percent of the average for this period.

However, a dry weather advisory was not issued because humidity levels had risen at night.

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