Diksia.com - Tokyo, The big explosion in Shinbashi, Tokyo was not a terrorist attack, but a normal gas explosion at a restaurant there.
“Four people were seriously injured in the explosion. Accident at restaurant due to gas leak. This is not a terrorism, just the result of a gas leak,” a police officer said this afternoon, from a source (3/ 3) July 2023).
On the afternoon of July 3, 2023, an explosion occurred at a restaurant that invaded a two-story building in Shimbashi, Tokyo, injuring four people, including a clerk and a passerby.
The restaurant manager, who is still in the hospital, said, “I lit a match to inhale the smoke and it exploded at that moment.”
At around 3:15 pm on July 3, 2023, a passerby reported that a two-story building in Shimbashi, Minato Ward, Tokyo, had exploded and smoke was leaking out.
The fire exploded at a restaurant on the second floor of the building, and was extinguished about three hours after firefighters carried out fire extinguishing activities.
The explosion injured four people: a male store manager in his 50s, a female employee in her 50s, and a male passerby in her 50s and 70s.
According to the Metropolitan Police Department, although all were conscious, four were seriously injured and one was slightly injured.
In addition, due to the impact of this explosion, there are damages such as damage to 7 surrounding buildings and 2 cars.
According to the Metropolitan Police Department, the restaurant was preparing to open at the time, and the manager of the restaurant where the fire broke out said, “It smelled like gas and sewage. there was an explosion.”
The Metropolitan Police Department is investigating the details of the situation, assuming that it may have been filled with flammable gas and leaked and ignited.
The site is an area where companies and restaurants gather about 300 meters west of JR Shimbashi Station.
The man who posted the video on social media said, “Suddenly there was an explosion, and when I looked at the road, things were scattered over a wide area. After that, smoke gradually rose.”
According to the records, the building where the fire broke out was made of reinforced concrete with eight floors above ground and one below.
According to the website, this café bar is located a 4-minute walk from Shimbashi Station, and is a café bar for horse lovers and those who want to become horse owners, based on the concept of “an oasis for horse lovers.” It is a shop where you can enjoy Japanese sake.
Business hours are from 16:00 to 2:00 midnight from Monday to Friday, and from 15:00 to 23:00 on Saturdays.
Ai Sekizawa, a professor at the Tokyo University of Science, said about the building fire in Shimbashi, Tokyo, “From the situation at the scene, it is thought that some kind of gas leaked into the room on the second floor of the building and ignited it”.
“It caused an explosion and a fire. There was no extensive damage, such as breaking the windows on the floor, so I don’t think it was an explosion that filled the entire building with gas. Therefore, it wasn’t a terrorism”.
The firefighters may not have been able to extinguish the blaze quickly enough, he added, as gas continued to fill the room.
Kazunori Kuwana, a professor at Tokyo University of Science who is familiar with fires and explosions, said, “If a match had caused such a big explosion, the room would have been filled with gas. It is presumed that the gas had scattered around bottom”.
The gas will burn to some extent due to the explosion, but if there is combustible material nearby, it will spread and cause a fire.
In this case, it is possible that combustible materials in the room ignited and caused the fire. Normally, city gas and propane gas smell, so you should know it, but maybe you didn’t notice it until now? ”
“A large explosion could collapse a building with just its skeleton, but this one may not be that big,” he said.
“If you find a gas leak, don’t go inside and report it to the fire department. It’s also important to think about how to evacuate if something happens.”
An employee of a nearby store said, “I felt a big vibration when I was in the store during the break, and when I went out, a cloud of smoke came out. Nothing inside the store fell or broke, but everything was damaged” he said.
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Source: Tribunnews.com / Richard Sushiro (Japan)
