Police Raid Hazama Ando over Deadly Tokyo Fire

August 28, 2018

Tokyo- Police raided the Tokyo head office of Japanese contractor Hazama Ando Corp. <1719> and other locations on Tuesday over a deadly fire that occurred at a building construction site in the capital last month.

Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department conducted the raid on suspicion of professional negligence resulting in death.

Hazama Ando was in charge of construction work on the building in the city of Tama.

The police allege that the company failed to take enough safety measures to prevent the fire that left five workers dead.

The July 26 fire is believed to have started on the third basement floor of the building after urethane insulators were ignited by sparks generated during work to cut a steel beam with a gas burner.

The five workers failed to flee as the building was immediately filled with smoke. A blackout occurred at the construction site when the fire started, investigative sources said.

As part of the investigation, the police plan to question all 320 workers who were at the construction site when the fire occurred and analyze documents seized in the raid.