(Mainichi)
KYOTO (Kyodo) — Guests were temporarily evacuated from a Kyoto hotel early Monday after a fire believed to have been caused by a charging portable battery, the local fire department said.
Emergency services received a call around 1:40 a.m. reporting that a fire had broken out on the second floor of the 10-story hotel near JR Kyoto Station. There were no injuries reported.
The fire department said the fire had already been put out using an extinguisher by the time firefighters arrived. The portable battery and a desk were burned, it said.
Portable rechargeable power banks have been blamed for a number of fires recently, including one that broke out in a Tokyo apartment building last month and a fire on a moving shinkansen bullet train in central Japan in August.
The Japanese government said earlier this month that there were 2,350 accidents, including fires, involving lithium-ion batteries over the five years through fiscal 2024. Portable batteries were involved in around 300 cases.
AloJapan.com