More than 1,000 firefighters in northern Japan battled to contain two wildfires for a fifth straight day on Sunday, as the blazes pushed closer to residential areas and forced more than 3,000 residents to evacuate.

The first fire broke out on Wednesday in a ?mountainous ?area and then a second fire nearby threatened residential districts in the town of Otsuchi ?in Iwate Prefecture.

Hilly terrain, dry weather and winds are hampering containment efforts, a fire department official told reporters.

On Sunday, Otsuchi Mayor Kozo Hirano told a news conference that about 1,600 firefighters as well as Self-Defense Forces troops were mobilized to battle the fires.?

Concentrated aerial water drops near residential areas were being carried out to try to halt the advance of the blazes, the mayor said.?

The fires had scorched about 1,370 hectares by Sunday morning, with evacuation orders having been issued for 1,541 households and ?3,233 people ¡ª about a third of Otsuchi¡¯s population.

The ?town is scarred by the memory of one of Japan¡¯s worst disasters, the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami when it lost nearly a tenth of its population.

¡°Even during the ?2011 disaster, this area didn¡¯t burn. ?There was a tsunami but we had no fire here,¡± said Taeko Kajiki, 76, a former nurse, who was among those who have been evacuated ?since Friday.

She said she had ?stayed up all night watching the red glow of the flames and ?had packed her bankbook and medical cards as well as the turtle she has ?kept as ?a pet since 2010.

¡°With the land so dry, fires keep igniting. We put one out, then race ?to extinguish another, over and over again,¡± said Masashi Kikuchi, a 37-year-old volunteer firefighter, who moved to a house on higher ground after losing his home to the 2011 tsunami.

Eight buildings, including one residential home, have been damaged or destroyed so far, though no injuries or fatalities have been reported, authorities said.

¡°I can¡¯t let people lose ?their ?homes again after losing them once to the tsunami,¡± Mayor Hirano ?told reporters. He said the town would seek help from other authorities and provide services, such as hot ?baths, to help ease stress among residents.

While Japan has experienced relatively few wildfires compared with other parts of the globe, climate change has increased their frequency, especially as the early spring months before the humid rainy season have been hot, dry and with winds that can whip up flames.

The ?Japan Meteorological Agency said no rain was forecast for the region over the coming week.