STORY: "My family home was washed away, and we relocated to higher ground. And then this time, the fire broke out right behind us. Honestly my reaction was, 'this again?'"
Back in March 2011, Ryota Haga was still in high school when the strongest earthquake ever recorded in Japan triggered a massive tsunami.
It destroyed his family home in the quiet northeastern town of Otsuchi.
Now 31, and married with a young child, the volunteer firefighter is facing another major natural disaster.
This time it's a large wildfire that has been burning for six days and is threatening his community.
As of Monday morning, the fire had already burned through almost 4,000 acres of forest.
"Physical fatigue is setting in. The soles of a lot of people's feet are hurting, including mine. After all, we're climbing mountain slopes where there are basically no paths, it's almost like a wall in places. So yes, things like pain in the soles of our feet are starting to show, that's one way you can really see that people are physically getting worn down."
Haga says the length and ferocity of the fire is unlike anything he's ever faced.
He and other volunteers from Otsuchi, along with professional firefighters from across Japan, are working hard to control the blaze.
They are using fire hoses and hand-held pumps to extinguish flames that have been raging on the mountainsides around the small fishing town.
Still, there is no sign of the fire coming under control.
The 2011 tsunami killed about one-tenth of the town's population.
That worsened the area's long-standing problem of depopulation.
Now Haga's fire brigade is short of people, and he worries about the future.
"If a fire of this scale were to happen 10 or 20 years from now, I'm very concerned about whether there would still be people of my generation, when I'm as old as today's older members, to fill the roles those long-serving members are carrying out now."
