[Fire at Kita Ward Elementary School] Jumping Out the Window and Huddling Together on the Fourth-Floor Eaves… The Scene of a “Life-Threatening Evacuation” as Seen by Neighbors
Children left behind inside the school
The quiet residential neighborhood was briefly thrown into chaos. Around 11:00 a.m. on June 19, a fire broke out at Takinogawa Third Elementary School in Kita Ward, Tokyo. The school has approximately 340 students. The incident occurred right in the middle of the third class period.
“According to the Tokyo Fire Department, approximately 200 square meters, including the music room, were engulfed in flames. The fire spread rapidly, and several elementary school students were unable to escape the school building in time. More than 70 fire trucks were dispatched to carry out rescue and firefighting operations.By around noon, everyone had been rescued, but 11 students were taken to the hospital after inhaling smoke. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department is investigating the cause, as there is a possibility the fire started during a routine inspection of a heater,” said a reporter from the social affairs desk of a national newspaper.
The stove that started the fire was located in the music preparation room. At the time of the fire, fifth-graders were reportedly having class in the adjacent music room. Neighbors witnessed the children desperately trying to escape the flames.
“Some of the children had escaped onto the awning outside a fourth-floor window. The flames were closing in right next to them, and the smoke was intense.About 15 students were crouching down, covering their mouths, and clearly terrified. After a while, a loud cracking sound echoed, and I could see part of the building burning away. As the flames gradually closed in, the children let out screams the moment a section of the building collapsed.”
The fire gradually grew larger, and at one point, smoke billowed from the windows above the children’s heads. While teachers tried to block the smoke-filled windows, some children were seen panicking and crying, while others waved their hands, pleading for help.
“The teachers were shouting, ‘It’s going to be okay—help is coming right away.’ About 10 minutes later, rescue teams arrived at the fourth-floor awning, set up a ladder, and began guiding the children to the neighboring building. However, since rescue workers had to accompany each child down the ladder one by one, the rescue took quite a long time.With the flames closing in so quickly, it was truly nerve-wracking for those of us watching, but I’m so relieved that everyone was rescued,” said a nearby resident.
Thanks to the desperate rescue efforts by the fire department and school officials, the fact that there were no casualties can be considered a silver lining in this tragedy.
[YouTube] FRIDAY Digital has released a video titled “[Emergency Video] Students Left Behind…Kita Ward Elementary School Fire: “Tense” Rescue Drama,” showing the “tense rescue” of students trapped in the school building shrouded in black smoke as flames raged at Takinogawa Third Elementary School in Takinogawa, Kita Ward, Tokyo.
