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Five people were killed and at least 19 people injured after a fire destroyed two adjacent boarding houses in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Sunday morning.
According to police and firefighters, flames were seen coming from the 3-story wooden Yoshida-ya boarding house at around 2 a.m. Fuji TV quoted witnesses as saying people were jumping from the third floor windows as the fire raged.
About 30 fire trucks were mobilized to battle the inferno which completely destroyed the two buildings. It took firefighters about 2 1/2 hours to extinguish the fire.
The bodies of five people were found, while 19 others suffered burns and smoke asphyxiation.
The low-rent boarding house said 74 people were registered as residents. At least eight people are missing, police said late Sunday.
Firefighters said no sprinklers were installed in the two buildings.
© Japan Today
9 Comments
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UK9393
So preventable but 3000 yen or so is obviously too expensive an outlay for the 'landlord', disgraceful waste of life. Aren't the Fire Dept required to check these kinds of residences?
UK9393
I am the first to acknowledge that the written medium can be hard to read nuance and meaning from, but... I didn't blame the Fire Department.
bjohnson23
a lot of these residents are so over priced its ridiculous how greedy land lords rather slum lords take advantage of people despite welfare or not. greed is greed for a 4x6 cell at 3,000 yen x 30 days, seems quite expensive and taking advantage of people..
Monozuki
I really don't know if the landlord ignored an instruction to install a sprinkler system. Nevertheless, if the boarding houses had been sprinklered, they could have extinguished a small fire before becoming a catastrophe.
May the victim's souls rest in peace.
Disillusioned
An accident waiting to happen, and it did!
Monozuki
@Educator60
Oh, that was it! That's quite new to me.
That's a great idea! I think you're absolutely right. I mean, it sounds like working.
Thanks for the feedback, Educator60.