TOKYO (TR) – A female music teacher doing her personal laundry on school grounds is believed to be the cause of a fire at a Tokyo elementary school last month that left 11 people injured, officials revealed last week, reports Nippon News Network (July 3).
During a hastily arranged press conference on the night of July 2, the principal of Takinogawa Daisan Elementary School in Kita Ward bowed in apology for the disaster. It was revealed that the blaze, which erupted in a fourth-floor music preparation room, likely started when personal clothes belonging to a music teacher in her 40s caught fire from a nearby space heater — which was also her personal property.
According to the principal, the teacher had a routine of arriving at the school around 6:00 a.m., using the home economics room washing machine to clean her personal clothes, and then hanging them to dry in the music prep room.
Other staff members were reportedly unaware of her unauthorized domestic activities until an internal investigation was launched after the fire.
Rebuilding the school
The blaze broke out on June 19 while 24 fifth-grade students were attending class in the adjacent music room. The incident prompted a chaotic evacuation of all 327 students on campus.
Some children were forced to climb out of windows onto an exterior awning to await rescue by firefighters. Two students reportedly fell during the scramble. According to Tokyo Metropolitan Police, a total of 11 people, including eight students, sustained injuries in the incident.
The music teacher, who remains hospitalized, has reportedly expressed remorse over the fire and inquired about the safety of the students and staff.
The fallout from the teacher’s morning laundry routine has been severe. Kita Ward is now considering completely rebuilding the damaged school structure. In the interim, older students will be scattered across nearby schools until summer vacation, after which the entire student body will be relocated to a shuttered elementary school nearly three kilometers away.
