Questions arise about authorities' response to Niigata fire

ITOIGAWA, Niigata -- Questions have arisen about whether authorities could have responded better to the massive Dec. 22-23 blaze that burned the heart out this Niigata Prefecture city.

The fire was put out at around 4:30 p.m. on Dec. 23 after some 30 hours. According to the city's disaster-response headquarters, around 150 structures were burned either totally or partially over an area of around 40,000 square meters. According to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, excepting earthquake-related fires, it was the largest blaze in Japan in the last 20 years, since a 1976 fire in Sakata, Yamagata Prefecture, which consumed around 150,000 square meters.

At first, the Itoigawa Fire Department headquarters sent six of their nine engines to the site. Department chief Masafumi Otaki says, "Looking at the available resources that day, it was the most we could do." However, it was not enough, and the fire spread. At around noon on Dec. 22 the headquarters sought reinforcements from places including the city of Joetsu, and after 1 p.m. it put out a prefecture-wide call for help. Eventually there were 126 fire engines and around 1,000 firefighters on-site.

However, it took time for the reinforcements to arrive. In the case of the city of Niigata, it is about a three-hour drive away. As of 3:30 p.m., when the fire had spread to around 140 buildings, the help from the prefectural capital still had not arrived.

The suggestion was raised that the firefighters had not had enough water for their firefighting efforts, but Otaki denied this, saying, "We had enough access to water." National standards require at least one fire hydrant per about every 20,000 square meters, and the around 75,000-square-meter area judged vulnerable to the conflagration had over 10 fire hydrants.

According to the Itoigawa Municipal Government, many of the people affected by the fire have taken refuge at relatives' homes. As of 2:30 p.m. on Dec. 23, 57 people were taking refuge at three evacuation shelters in the city or at city-prepared lodgings. According to the city's disaster-response headquarters, two female residents and nine firefighters had minor injuries from the fire.

The area affected was one of densely-concentrated wooden structures in front of Itoigawa Station. In some areas, there was not even enough space for a person to pass between adjacent buildings.

A firefighter says, "For the ramen shop that was the source of the fire, there was a large road on its west from which we could spray water, but to the north and south were only some narrow roads some distance away, and for the eastern side it was practically impossible to spray water (on the fire)."

Historical records for the city show that a 1928 fire in the same area consumed 105 structures. Just as in the recent fire, the flames were fed by a southerly wind.

Mayor Toru Yoneda says that the area of the new blaze had many buildings constructed in the Taisho or early Showa eras. "The old-fashioned style was a draw for tourists and the residents liked it, so it was hard to change that for the sake of fire prevention."

According to the Niigata Local Meteorological Office, the maximum instantaneous wind speed in Itoigawa on Dec. 22 was a 24.2-meters-per-second southerly -- the fourth-fastest wind speed for December since records started in 2009. The maximum temperature on the day was 20.5 degrees Celsius, around 11 degrees higher than for a typical year.

The office says that sometimes in Itoigawa, strong southerlies passing through a nearby valley are compressed, raising the air temperature, and this may have happened on Dec. 22. Rain fell in the afternoon, so the source of the warm temperatures is thought to be different from the foehn phenomenon, in which winds blow down a mountainside, getting drier and warmer.

According to a firefighter who was at the scene, around one hour after the fire started, smoke began rising almost simultaneously from structures over 100 meters from the ramen shop, to the northeast and the northwest. Embers carried by the wind are thought to have spread to their roofs.