Weather officials in Japan forecast it will rain in the wildfire-hit city of Ofunato from Wednesday through Thursday.



The blazes began last Wednesday and have scorched about 8 percent of the city in northeastern Japan's Iwate Prefecture.



Weather officials say snowfall is expected to start before dawn on Wednesday, then turn to rain from shortly before noon. The rain is expected to continue through Thursday.



It will be the first for the city to have a large amount of rain since the eruption of the wildfires. The total amount of rainfall is expected to reach about 50 millimeters.



Firefighting operations will continue overnight and prefectural officials say about 2,000 people are set to work on extinguishing the flames on Wednesday, the same scale as Tuesday.



But the officials point out that operations with helicopters could be difficult, depending on weather conditions.



The total razed area in the city had expanded to approximately 2,600 hectares as of Tuesday morning.



Footage taken from an NHK helicopter of the city's Akasakicho Sotoguchi district on Tuesday evening showed the frameworks of destroyed buildings.



Flames and smoke were seen rising in a wide area of forests. In the city's Sanrikucho Okirai's Onizawa district, red flames could be seen spreading in streaks and close to houses.



The city has issued evacuation orders to wide areas.



As of 11 a.m. on Tuesday, 1,216 people had taken shelter in 12 facilities.



The number of people who have evacuated to places other than shelters rose to 2,805.