Blast in Fukushima restaurant kills 1, injures at least 18

Looks to be a gas leak in a shabu-shabu restaurant undergoing renovation judging by news reports. The explosion happened at 0900ish, so that would indicate some poor soul must have been unlocking for the day when the restaurant blew up in his/her face.

Shabooooom

It looks like the gas must have been on all night filling the entire building and then the first person in in the morning flipped a light switch or turned on the hot water to wash hands and the whole building went at once. Luckily there was a lot of parking lot around it.

The restaurant had been closed since April and had undergone some renovations while closed due to the virus. Was scheduled to reopen tomorrow.

is there a picture of the restaurant before the explosion?

It is this restaurant:

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.3981696,140.3470449,3a,75y,124.47h,83.48t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s0QKWfK5Iayb9gbuInpSnHw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

I know this place and heard the explosion :(

Poor customers, wrong place wrong time. May those injured recover quickly and RIP to the one who died.

TheRedsToday  12:52 pm JST

Poor customers, wrong place wrong time.

Customers? The restaurant was due to re-open Friday (tomorrow).

........ the steel structure gnawed ..........

Not sure gnawed is the right word for the condition of the steel frame.

Tom Today  12:42 pm JST

It is this restaurant:

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.3981696,140.3470449,3a,75y,124.47h,83.48t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s0QKWfK5Iayb9gbuInpSnHw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

I know this place and heard the explosion :(

Thanks for the link. It looks to be in a fairly busy (by Koriyama standards) area.

Jeees, thats a mess! I wonder if the person who has died was the one who was in the shop at the time this explosion happened.

I think the owner was at ground zero during the blast I think he/she would have not made it out there alive. Very unfortunate situation.

Precisely why I won’t use gas

Really, serendipitous1?

gas explosions do not register underground tremors just before they happen and therefore would not register an earthquake alert.

As for the 18 people,

 The restaurant, which had been renovated, was due to reopen Friday

I presume they are from the nearby banks, etc

The bank was next to it. I think the injured came from there.

NHK reported that the dead man was doing some work on the walls, like changing the wallpaper.

Windows blew out as far away as at Koriyama's Women's University.

Very sad for both the owners and the customers. Hope all recover fast and restart.

Wow-there is nothing left of the place

Must've been an incredibly powerful explosion to have dented the steel frame the restaurant was made out of...

Anyone within 20m of it wouldn't have had a chance.

I'm not sure if they'll be able to find the cause though.