Wildfires battered Iwate Prefecture in northeastern Japan for 11 days, starting on April 22. The fires burned about 1,600 hectares and forced 3,200 residents to evacuate. With warmer climates, continued expansion of urban areas into forested regions, and the increasing frequency of extreme weather e vents, disasters like these are becoming more common around the world, underscoring the urgent need for advances in fire safety science and predictive modeling. ...read more read less