An area of at least 2,100 hectares in Ofunato, Iwate prefecture, has been destroyed by the blaze. At least one person has died.

Residents have been instructed to evacuate, as more than 2,000 firefighters use helicopters and hoses to douse the flames

Japan has deployed more than 2,000 firefighters to battle the country's biggest forest fire in three decades. At least one person has died in the blaze, which has torched more than 5,200 acres around the northern Japanese city of Ofunato since Thursday,