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The incident happened around 9:30 p.m. on November 27, at a yakiniku barbecue restaurant in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture. According to prefectural police, the fire started when the flames leaping up from the large amount of meat grilling at a customer’s table spread to the oil-covered air vent above.
If you’re unfamiliar with how yakiniku-type restaurants work, often there is a grill at the center of each table, and customers can order meats and other sides of their choosing and grill it up themselves. This particular restaurant had an all-you-can-eat option as well, which is what the customers in question had ordered, before things took a turn for the worse. “We were grilling a large amount of meat, when the flames went up and the air duct caught on fire. We tried grilling a bunch at once so we could finish it all within the all-you-can-eat time limit,” one of the diners explained.
Fat drippings from even a small amount of meat can cause a fair amount of flames, so you can imagine that a large pile would elicit a rather sizable fire. Couple that with a grease-covered air duct just above the grill, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.
The fire raged for four hours before it was fully extinguished, but not before it burnt through the whole two-story establishment, and part of the real estate office in the connecting building. While there were several customers and employees in the restaurant when the fire started, thankfully no one was injured.
Thirty-one-year-old Kazuaki Sawada, a diner at the restaurant who witnessed the fire, told reporters: “There were a number of businessmen-looking customers sitting at the table, and the flames went straight up and it caught fire. We just couldn’t put it out, and it got bigger and bigger.”
Source: Sankei West via Hachima Kikou
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- External Link
- https://en.rocketnews24.com/2017/11/30/overambitious-diners-set-restaurant-ablaze-trying-to-grill-all-you-can-eat-yakiniku/
33 Comments
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Yubaru
Glad no one was hurt, and I am actually surprised it doesn't happen more often.
kurisupisu
Don't restaurants in Japan have fire extinguishers?
SaikoPhysco
Oil Covered Air Vent.... I wonder if the insurance company will pay to have the damage repaired? It appears the restaurant owner was negligent.
Tokyo-Engr
@Saiko - I think the insurance company will probably pay but you are right. In many of these places the oil/fat will build up. I can just picture it...the flames reach the vent, some grease catches fire, the intake velocity of the air going into the exhaust system fans the fire and the fire becomes a duct fire inside of a grease filled exhaust system which would then be impossible to put out as the fire is inside the exhaust system. If there is enough grease and fat in there even a standard fire suppression system would have little chance of putting the thing out.
itsonlyrocknroll
Take a photo and place it in the dictonary next to gluttony......
“We were grilling a large amount of meat, when the flames went up and the air duct caught on fire. We tried grilling a bunch at once so we could finish it all within the all-you-can-eat time limit,” one of the diners explained..........as you do?!....
Presumably with the aid of a garden implement akin to a shovel
pacint
Ouch. Fat increases the heat generated during grilling.
BeerDeliveryGuy
All public spaces have fire extinguishers.
However not all people are trained to use them properly in an emergency.
A panicked teenage employee would most likely waste all 10~20 seconds of spray time on the flames, rather than the source of the flame.
pacint
For an oil fire I would prefer sand, etc over a fire extinguisher
Aly Rustom
The roof! The roof! The roof is on fire!
BeerDeliveryGuy
Most fire extinguisher in Japan are filled with a pink colored powder that is effective against oil and electrical fires.
If in doubt, look at the front label.
Types of fire:
普通 Regular
油 Oil
電気 Electric
Contents:
粉末 Powder
液体 Liquid
液化ガス Liquefied gas
高圧ガス Pressurized has
BeerDeliveryGuy
gas
Tokyo-Engr
Good comments about the fire extinguishers but a kid with an extinguisher would have little to no chance against this type of fire if it gets into the exhaust system and the usual sprinklers would not be able to do much either. Some of the fancier yakiniku places have suppression systems actually in the hood above where you cook but they also tend to keep the hood very clean.
I eat in a lot of these types of places, often good price and decent food, but I have always thought about the risk of fire in some of these joints. Next time you are in one take a paper napkin and put it below the exhaust at the table. You will see as you move closer to the duct the velocity increases dramatically. Imagine that sucking a flame into a dirty duct.
One commenter said it is "not news" - I can see your point but was interesting to me (even though not much details)
kohakuebisu
Nihonjinron tells us that Japanese people are "kirei-zuki" (like cleanliness), but I'm sure we've all seen the above. Try your local raamen joints if you haven't.
If you want a nice fire, crank your grill up to beef temperature, several hundred degrees, and then stick a lot of pork on it. Pork is generally much fattier than beef, especially the non-marbled beef at eat all you can yakiniku.
I'm pleased no-one was hurt!
borscht
A restaurant chain I worked for in the US has chimney sweeps that come by once a year to clean out the exhaust vents above the stove. Takes about an hour and the guy really gets greasy as he climbs up into the vents and does an incredible job. Is it the same here on Safety Island Nation or is it a case of “don’t worry, it won’t burn.”?
thepersoniamnow
I would have no problem putting out a yakiniku fire with several handfuls of beef if I had a fire extinguisher. These guys probably ran.
Kobe White Bar Owner
this is cos of the tabi/nomi hordi culture, turns simple people into greedy 12 year olds.
Laguna
borscht, thinking the same thing. I've seen vents clogged with an astounding amount of grease.
BTW, could the diners finish eating before they had to evacuate?
nakanoguy01
this "news" article is a bit misleading. the customers weren't grilling meat, they were grilling mostu and some other fatty innards. that's the reason why there was such a tremendous amount of heat and fire below the vent that covered the grill. normal "yakiniku" meat doesn't have enough fat to start a blaze.
Wakarimasen
Vikings!!!!
NCIS Reruns
Gluttony is one of the 7 deadly sins.
Mocheake
This place passed the last inspection? Vents greased up, no extinguishers. I have TWO fire extinguishers in my house.
stepoutsidethebox
"For an oil fire I would prefer sand, etc over a fire extinguisher"
They make almost countless types of fire extinguishers. They make specific types for specific fires. Liquid: gasoline/oil, chemical, electrical, wood/paper, etc. Depending on what is the most typical type of fire hazard, is the type of fire extinguishers they SHOULD have had. You can figure 9 out of 10 times, fires in a restaurant are going to be caused by oil. So they should have had plenty on hand to take car of EXACTLY this type of fire. In the USA we would use what is called an B type extinguisher for an oil or gasoline fire. However, Japan has no easy, ABC classification, as far as I have seen.
Magnus Roe
I remember seeing a thread on a "foreigner forum" about some guy running a restaurant here and his surprise at the complete lack of health and safety inspections once his place opened. You can tell from the ventilators in kitchens though, they are often entirely encapsulated in grease and this by itself could cause a fire.
Having a grill restaurant in a wooden building without a sprinkler system sounds unreal, but I rarely see any safety precautions of any kind so it's not really surprising.
BeerDeliveryGuy
I’m not sure what fire extinguishers you were looking at, but the most common type always have “普通 (regular) A-1, 油(oil) B-2, 電気(electric) C) clearly and prominently printed on the tank in white, yellow and blue circles.
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B6%88%E7%81%AB%E5%99%A8
BeerDeliveryGuy
Sorry, B-1 for oil...
bones
Dumb question but why does it seem that there is such an obsession with gluttony?
tabehodai , Nomi Hodai etc etc
seems most people are not easily just satisfied .
BeerDeliveryGuy
Because of the 元を取る get your money’s worth attitude of customers.
It also makes splitting the bill easier.
Tokyo-Engr
Actually there are Class "K" extinguishers for commercial kitchens. Class B is also for flammable materials (including cooking grease).
In this case however if the fire gets into the duct the fire extinguisher most likely will not work (but it might depending on how soon it can be treated).
The sprinkler system may not do much either if this gets into the duct as it becomes likely the fire will spread to the ceiling/roof.
The issue here I think is allowing the fat, grease, oil to build up on the ventilation hood and into the duct itself is a huge hazard. Inspections identifying these risks would be a big help.
The key for these types of fires is not to let them start in the first place. The best prevention is daily cleaning of the hood and exhaust duct. From experience eating in alot of these places in Japan this does not always happen.
Thankfully in this case no one was seriously injured or died!
wtfjapan
Ouch. Fat increases the heat generated during grilling. ah yes oil is combustible obviously
shogun36
FIRE FIRE!!!!!
Disillusioned
Maybe I'm just paranoid (or clever), but I always look for exits and extinguishers when I go to a Japanese restaurant. Some of the restaurants are like a rabbit warren with twists and turns in every direction.
Oh, and just to clear up the extinguisher debate. Any dry chemical extinguisher will put out a smaller oil fire, simply by starving it of oxygen.
wildwest
I am still amazed at why this situation is not more common. It was and still is suprising that these places exist. Fires under and extrators intakes full of gelatinous fat covererd pipeing - ducting connected to a central fan unit and not an extinguisher in sight in a crowded multi story buiding with a narrow exit often blocked with furniture and occasionally bloted.