The cause of Friday’s fire at an elementary school in Tokyo’s Kita Ward is believed to have been accidental, with no third-party involvement, according to police sources.
It was also found that an electric heater and multiple air circulators had been placed in a room used to store musical instruments on the fourth floor of the school building, where the fire is believed to have started, the sources at Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department said Saturday.
The MPD, in cooperation with the Tokyo Fire Department, is conducting an on-site inspection at Takinogawa Daisan Elementary School to determine the exact cause of the fire, which left 11 people, mainly children, injured.
According to the sources, the heater was plugged into a wall outlet at the time.
The fire broke out around 11 a.m. on Friday, burning about 200 square meters, including the storage room and an adjacent music room. Students evacuated through the windows onto an exterior ledge and were later rescued by firefighters.
There were 24 fifth-grade students in the music room at the time. A female teacher in her 40s noticed an unusual smell and opened the door to the preparation room, where she saw smoke. A fire alarm was triggered, and a male teacher who rushed to the scene attempted to put out the fire, but was unable to extinguish it.
Although a rescue chute was installed in the music classroom, it could not be used as the smoke intensified. Instead, the male teacher evacuated the students onto the ledge about 80 centimeters wide.
Initially, the MPD said two 10-year-old boys and the female teacher had suffered fractures, but it was later determined that one of the boys had not. Seven children and two adults also suffered smoke inhalation and other minor injuries.
AloJapan.com