Helicopters dropped water to battle a wildfire in Japan.

Footage shows firefighting helicopters dousing the raging forest fire in Ofunato City in the Iwate Prefecture, today, February 27.

At least one person was killed and thousands evacuated as the fire that broke out Wednesday ripped through 600 hectares of land.

Local mayor Kiyoshi Fuchigami said in a Thursday press conference: 'Since the fire broke out yesterday, the fire department, the fire brigade and other volunteers worked tirelessly through the night to extinguish the fire. I would like to once again express my gratitude to those workers.

'Aerial helicopter firefighting operations have been underway since this morning. There is no doubt that work to extinguish the fire will be extremely difficult given the strong winds, but we will do our utmost to suppress the fire as quickly as possible.'

It was the third wildfire reported in the Iwate Prefecture, which is currently experiencing dry weather, in the past week.