5 Workers Killed in Fire at Construction Site in Tokyo

July 27, 2018

Tokyo- -A fire broke out at a building construction site in the city of Tama, Tokyo, on Thursday, killing five workers and injuring about 40 others, including more than 20 with severe wounds, according to police and firefighting authorities.

The Metropolitan Police Department has launched an investigation for possible charges of professional negligence resulting in death and injury, suspecting that there could have been a flaw in work conditions or an evacuation route.

Many of the five victims, all men, died probably of carbon monoxide poisoning after inhaling a lot of smoke, investigative sources said.

The MPD will carry out autopsies on the victims to look into details of the causes of their deaths while working to identify them, the sources said.

A total of some 80 fire trucks and other vehicles were deployed to the scene, where plumes of black smoke rose from an office building under construction.

The fire was almost put out about six hours after it started at around 1:50 p.m. (4:50 a.m. GMT).

When the fire occurred, there were about 320 workers at the construction site, about one kilometer west of Karakida Station of Odakyu Electric Railway Co.'s Tama Line.

The building, with three floors each above and below the ground, was scheduled to be completed in October, and about 90 pct of the construction work had already been finished, according to realtor Mitsui Fudosan Co. <8801> and other sources.

The fire is believed to have started on the third basement floor, burning about 5,000 square meters of thermal insulators laid under the floor, police sources said.

Four of the five victims were found near the third basement floor, and the other one on the third floor above ground, the sources said.

A worker has told police that the urethane materials were ignited by sparks generated during work to cut a steel beam with a gas burner.

The worker tried to put out the flames using an extinguisher and water, but was unable to do so because the fire spread rapidly, according to the sources. Jiji Press