Forest fire alert!! Caravan departs in Shonai area, travels to 5 cities to raise awareness of prevention | From the paper dated April 17, 2026 | Shonai Nippo News – Yamagata/Shonai | Shonai Nipposha

From the paper dated Friday, April 17, 2026

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Wildfire alert!! Shonai area caravan departs to 5 cities and towns to raise awareness about prevention

The departure ceremony for the “Shonai Area Wildfire Prevention Caravan” was held in front of the main entrance of the Shonai Prefectural General Branch Office in Mikawa Town on the 16th, calling on residents to protect forests from fire damage and to be careful when handling fire.

In the prefecture, 20 wildfires occurred in 2024 (approximately 186 hectares of burned area), and 4 wildfires occurred in 2025 (approximately 0.72 hectares). All of the fires occurred between March and August, and the majority of the fires were caused by the spread of wildfires. Since the beginning of this year, fires have occurred in Higashine City, Kaminoyama City, and Yuza Town, and a total of about 20 hectares have been destroyed. In early spring, the air is dry and there are more opportunities to go into the forest, so the prefecture is conducting wildfire prevention awareness activities in four blocks.

In the Shonai area, the event is sponsored by the Shonai branch office and the Shonai Regional Forestry Promotion Council (chairman: Masuo Yamamoto, representative director of the Dewa-Shonai Forestry Association). Related organizations such as the Shonai Forest Management Office, the five Shonai municipalities, and the fire department formed a “Wildfire Prevention Caravan” to raise awareness about fire prevention. In addition, pine blight damage is widespread mainly in the Shonai coastal forest, and people are urged to be careful when handling fire near the coastal forest.

Approximately 40 people from related organizations participated in the departure ceremony on this day. Yasuhiro Nagasawa, head of the industrial and economic affairs department of the branch office and the leader of the caravan, gave a speech and said, “Relevant organizations will cooperate with each other to promote awareness-raising activities, such as not lighting bonfires during strong winds,” and handed armbands to the 18 caravan members. Afterwards, the caravan members rode in 12 PR vehicles. They were divided into four teams and patrolled five cities and towns, calling for fire prevention measures.