crime

Man arrested for starting forest fire after barbecue in Hyogo

20 Comments

Police on Monday arrested a 40-year-old man on suspicion of starting a mountain forest fire after he threw a smoldering charcoal briquette into the woods following a barbecue in Ako, Hyogo Prefecture, on Sunday afternoon.

The blaze started in the mountains at around 3 p.m. It spread to near the Sanyo and Harima expressways which were closed to traffic for seven hours on Sunday night, Fuji TV reported. The fire forced more than 80 families to evacuate from their homes.

The fire was not extinguished until around 6 a.m. Monday morning. Six self-defense force helicopters carrying water joined 25 fire engines to combat the blaze.

Firefighters said the blaze destroyed over 70 hectares of forest.

Fuji TV quoted police as saying that the suspect, identified as Daigo Kawahara, held a barbecue at his home on Sunday afternoon. He was quoted by police as saying he disposed of the charcoal in the forest but did not realize it was still smoldering.

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20 Comments
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What an incredibly stupid individual.

Don't just fine him or put him in jail. Make him part of his income on a continuous basis and/or make him do community service, first to assist the families affected, then to help rejuvenate the affected area.

6 ( +8 / -2 )

Don't just fine him or put him in jail. Make him part of his income on a continuous basis and/or make him do community service, first to assist the families affected, then to help rejuvenate the affected area.

Spot on, Basher. That should apply in 99% of all criminal cases. Jail is such a waste of time and money for all concerned.

5 ( +7 / -3 )

What a twat.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

An idiot. A lucky idiot but I would assume his house is nearby the woods he chucked this into. And I agree. Community service- Japan's "smokey the Bear" perhaps?

0 ( +3 / -3 )

He had it coming. How is he going to take responsibility?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Too many people I see in daily life here have irresponsible attitudes towards public places. They seem to think once it's in a public place somehow their responsibility ends there. I see people throwing their rubbish on the ground when there's a waste bin just like a meter away. I could never understand this.

On another note, I think many people here don't "get" how to properly have a barbie, especially outdoors with matters of safety and cleaning up after themselves.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

he should also be bear the cost of putting out the fire.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

...cleaning up after themselves.

Oh, eye, don't get me started. In my hometown in California, people will come down on your ass if you leave so much as a bottle in the sand; here, I've seen people abandon entire barbecue sets along with the accompanying garbage. What do these types think becomes of this stuff?

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Smokey would be very unhappy...

2 ( +2 / -0 )

"he should also be bear the cost of putting out the fire."

That's nothing compared to the damage he did to the forest.

I hope the barbecue was a raging success, lol.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

In my hometown in California, people will come down on your ass if you leave so much as a bottle in the sand; here, I've seen people abandon entire barbecue sets along with the accompanying garbage. What do these types think becomes of this stuff?

Well the problem here is that no one says anything. I'll tell people they "forgot" things if I see them try that.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

he threw a smoldering charcoal briquette into the woods

and

he disposed of the charcoal in the forest but did not realize it was still smoldering.

Does not quite match up.

So does he realize it was smoldering now? Is it not possible the source of the fire was something else? Like something burning that flew off his BBQ while he was lighting the fire? Or the cigarette of another person?

Maybe he was such a fool as to throw smoldering ash onto a pile of dried leaves, but then again, maybe that is not at all what happened.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Police on Monday arrested a 40-year-old man on suspicion of starting a mountain forest fire after he threw a smoldering charcoal briquette into the woods following a barbecue in Ako, Hyogo Prefecture, on Sunday afternoon.

Clearly this man is not the hottest briquette in his hibachi.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@proudpapa

Not quite sure what the point you are trying to make. Yes, feasibly anything could have started it. Perhaps it was aliens. Most likely, it was a fool throwing still hot charcol embers onto dry leaves. Charcol stays hot for a very long time.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

This closed down the Sanyo and Harima Expressways for 7 hours. I wonder if NEXCO will go after him for lost revenue like JR does when anyone disrupts their trains.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Plenty of JT commercials on how to smoke tobacco politely, but nothing on fire safety or pollution, zero. No money to be made from anti pollution campaigns it seems.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Worked with a woman who did the same thing tossing the coals over the fence and another who put the ashes in the trash bin and burned the house. You have to wonder about what people are thinking.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

And the Darwin award this month goes to ... drum roll ...

He was lucky he did not burn himself down.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

He sounds like he was being a bit lazy. There are plenty of places to safely dispose of BBQ waste in Japan. Fire is a big problem in Japan especially in the summer. I hope this guy is suitably embarrassed by what he did.

We had a local man do something similar here(Japan), while burning his fields (illegal here) he accidentally set fire to two houses. The following year the man was burning his fields again (still illegal) and it began to spread to a neighbors property. He panicked and in his attempt to stop it spreading ended up setting himself on fire and killing himself. Let's hope this guy is smarter.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

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