national

5 die, 40 injured in fire at construction site in Tokyo suburbs

24 Comments

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

© KYODO

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

24 Comments
Login to comment

In Tokyo, around 100 to 200 fires occur at construction sites every year. Welding or melt-cutting work, cigarette butts and arson are often the cause of the fires, according to the fire department.

In Thursday's blaze, workers were using acetylene gas torches to cut steel frames, the police said, adding that sparks created during the work apparently set fire to nearby urethane material.

Urethane is often used as insulation material in homes and buildings.

Sounds like poor construction standards and safety practices

15 ( +17 / -2 )

Sad to hear. RIP.

Hopefully this will come with new safety measures.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

In Tokyo, around 100 to 200 fires occur at construction sites every year. Welding or melt-cutting work, cigarette butts and arson are often the cause of the fires, according to the fire department.

Not something commonly reported here. That is a hell of a lot of fires if you ask me. Too many in fact, and sounds like the inspectors and job site managers are being negligent in their jobs too!

9 ( +13 / -4 )

Why does it always take a tragedy like this to invoke better safety measures here? A loss of 5 lives that could have been avoided!

8 ( +9 / -1 )

I'm very surprised that insulting is so flammable, used in housing and industrial buildings! It also from the story produces a blinding smoke. Saw in England the tower block growing up in flames like a wick. Packing the walls with a combustible material will only result in outcomes like this. Wouldn't it be better to use a fire resistant material, there are plenty around and they aren't that much more expensive some are the same price.

6 ( +8 / -2 )

The video I saw on tv last night looked like volcano eruption. Such a huge cloud of smoke.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

there are literally tens of thousands of construction sites going on every year in tokyo, most are small and consist of tearing down and then building new homes. right now, there are about a dozen going around in my neighborhood. and i've never seen a fire or smelled smoke at any of these construction sites. so 100-200 seems like quite a small number to me. and without knowing the size of the fire, how can you really comment on the "poor construction standards" or the "negligent" managers? smh...

0 ( +5 / -5 )

The use of flammable insulation is banned in most countries. In fact, the insulation used in houses and buildings is usually fire retardant. I've seen them installing large sheets of urethane foam into buildings and commented it was an extreme fire hazard. It's not only highly flammable, the smoke is extremely toxic. I've also seen them installing urethane foam into timber framed homes, which makes them a toxic tinder box. It's obviously high time Japan updated it's building codes and workplace safety standards.

14 ( +15 / -1 )

I dont understand what they used as insulation, the only urethane I know for insulation is spray.. and that is VERY heat proof...

Spray foam insulation is rated very highly, as being resistant to both smoke and heat. Most of the spray foam insulation used on the market today is rated class one against fire, which is one of the highest ratings a home and business insulation product can receive. While this doesn’t mean it can’t catch on fire or be damaged by heat, it means it isn’t very likely that it would occur. Plus, it also won’t cause heat itself or make something like an electrical overload occur. You can be sure that spray foam companies frequently test their products, to make sure they are safe for use. This makes spray foam insulation a very good choice for consumers.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

often used as insulation material in homes and buildings.

Insulation? In Japan?!

0 ( +6 / -6 )

unless of course it was substandard and lacked the fire retardant as well as what caused all the acrid smoke. Probably some off the books replacement to profiteer off the construction they thought no one would notice, then the accident occurred. It would explain why welders set off the fire as they would have just assumed it wasn't going to catch since they have probably worked on other jobs where it was never a safety issue

6 ( +7 / -1 )

@sf2k yepp,cutting corners is pretty common in construction here.. I personally caught my builders trying to skimp on pre-agreed products , to a point where I got them to dismantle and rebuild two walls.

They still hate me for it.

9 ( +9 / -0 )

@Alex Einz - I dont understand what they used as insulation, the only urethane I know for insulation is spray.. and that is VERY heat proof...

From what I've seen, it's closer to a polystyrene than a urethane. It's sheets of a blue or yellow foam-like material, which are highly flammable and the smoke is highly toxic.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

More likely to be wrapping papers, cardboxes, plastic protective sheeting and general debris that went up. After the 1995 Hanshin earthquake, when railway bridges collapsed, concrete pillars were found to be packed with builders' rubbish, the cheapest way to dispose of it, though at the cost of structural integrity.

8 ( +9 / -1 )

The insulation had not yet been installed--it was piled up and ready to be put into place. The more than 300 construction workers do not all work for the same company; there are numerous contractors on-site, looking after structural work, electrical wiring, plumbing, etc. A lack of communication between crews of workers probably contributed to the accident.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

I don't think building inspectors, as that term is used in the West, exist in Japan. There are no inspections while you are having a house built. The only inspection our house got was when it was finished.

They must be using very low grade foam for it to catch fire from sparks alone. Insulation foam will produce lots of toxic smoke, but ignition from only a few sparks sounds unrealistic. Rigid and spray foam are used worldwide, sometimes in very high-end projects, and would not be if it caught fire so easily. The blue stuff used in houses in Japan is XPS foam made by Dow Chemical called Stryroace in katakana. Here is someone trying to light XPS with a blowtorch. The fumes will be toxic, but the material is not "tinder".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0X6_C9Z3DMs

As another poster suggests, I think something more burnable, onsite gomi perhaps, must have caught fire near the insulation. Or we have grade A carelessness, like someone putting down a lit cutting torch to answer their mobile.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Not an expert but would be very surprised if Japan suffered from lax safety or building supervision or materials standards.  Seems like an unfortunate accident.

-11 ( +0 / -11 )

This is what happens when you mix flammable insulation, sparks, lack of common sense, and hire companies that subcontract to do such work. That large cruise ship a few years back also went up in flames for a similar reason, if I recall -- or maybe due to some guy having a smoke break near flammable materials. I forget.

I bet we'll get a "We promise a safety standards investigation, carried out by the safety standards commission, to see how this could have happened, and promise transparency on how we conduct safety standards check after the information has been carefully reviewed and agreed upon in private."

RIP to those lost. Horrible way to go.

8 ( +8 / -0 )

@Wakarimasen - Not an expert but would be very surprised if Japan suffered from lax safety or building supervision or materials standards. Seems like an unfortunate accident.

There are over 200 of these 'unfortunate accidents' resulting in fires every year. It's pretty obvious they do lack the safety standards and building codes to prevent these 'unfortunate accidents', don't you think?

7 ( +8 / -1 )

Not an expert but would be very surprised if Japan suffered from lax safety or building supervision or materials standards

Which part of Japan Inc would you like to discuss, nuclear, construction, manufacturing.........?

Do some research, the list is endless.

9 ( +9 / -0 )

OK.  will do some research.  Just given the massive nanny state and ki o tsukete culture I see every day in my own life I expected that it would be the same in industry.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

"He ran without knowing exactly where the exit was." that tells me there was no site induction, and no illuminated escape route signs, which is what is needed in a power failure, or fire. was there portable adequate fire fighting extinguishers handy? was there any trained guys on site to use them? what a sad and totally avoidable loss, I hope that some fat cat boss gets pulled in by the police on a manslaughter charge.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Brian exactly, decades ago when I was in construction could not start working until completing a site orientation. And an emergency procedure talk. Usually done at once. And as a sub contractor I had plenty. Never had to use the information but I had it. Still can't understand why the insulation produced so much smoke and obviously combusted so quickly. Frightening.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Hot working close to flammable materials is not acceptable. Even fire resistant foam insulation is not fire proof, it will burn and when is does it produces high temperatures and masses of toxic black smoke. The stories of lack of safety information at induction are also very worrying. Management failings, lack of risk assessment, lack of safe working methods, lack of enforcement will be the root cause of this. Site management should answer to the families of the victims but I guarantee there will be some swift arse covering going right now.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites