Explosion in Sapporo Seen Caused by Gas

December 17, 2018

Sapporo- An explosion at a building in Sapporo, capital of Hokkaido, northernmost Japan, on Sunday is seen to have been caused by a buildup of gas in a real-estate office in the building, police sources said Monday.

The Hokkaido prefectural police department suspects that the gas filled the office and ignited to trigger the explosion, which left 42 injured people, aged from one to over 60, including many customers at an "izakaya" eatery also housed in the building.

According to some investigative sources, an official of the real estate agent said the explosion occurred after the work to release the leftover contents of more than 100 used cans of air freshener, before disposal. The official said the blast was set off when a water heater was turned on.

After the explosion at around 8:30 p.m. Sunday (11:30 a.m. GMT), the two-story building in the city's Toyohira Ward collapsed almost entirely and the flames spread to an adjacent fast-food restaurant.

Local fire authorities said nine propane gas tanks had been placed behind the building. There were five 50-kilogram gas cylinders at the eatery, while the real estate firm and an osteopathic clinic, also housed in the building, each had two 20-kilogram gas cylinders.

The most severe damage was to the side of the building where the real estate office was located.

Two staff members of the real estate company were injured in the explosion. Of them, a 33-year-old man suffered severe burns of his face, but his life is not in danger.

At the eatery, 40 customers and staff members were injured. Some of them fell to the first floor of the building when the second floor partially crumbled.

The neighborhood suffered extensive damage from the explosion, with windows broken in a car hundreds of meters from the blast site, for example.

Besides the 42 people who were taken to hospital, several others were injured, including a pedestrian and a resident of a nearby building. Jiji Press