TOKYO (TR) – A mobile battery used to charge a smartphone burst into flames inside a carriage of the JR Yamanote Line train on Sunday, causing a delay of about two hours to the loop line, authorities said, reports NHK (July 20).
At around 4:00 p.m., the mobile battery carried by a passenger burst into flames train inside a train traveling between Shinjuku Station and Shin-Okubo stations.
According to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police and JR East, the fire was soon put out by a passenger using a fire extinguisher, but four passengers sustained minor injuries, including a woman in her 30s who suffered burns to her hand.
JR suspended service on both the inner and outer loops to ensure safety. Staff later guided passengers who had been on the same train onto the tracks to Shin-Okubo Station.
Yamanote Line service resumed on the outer loop at around 5:00 p.m. The inner loop resumed about 70 minutes later.
As a result, other lines, including the Chuo and Saikyo lines, were also suspended, but they have gradually resumed operations.
“I felt my life was in danger”
According to a man who filmed the scene as the fire broke out, he heard someone scream before the train arrived at Shinjuku Station. When he went to check on the situation, he saw smoke coming out of a bag.
“At first I was surprised, thinking that someone had been stabbed. It looked like smoke was coming out of something like a mobile battery in a carrier bag,” the man said.
A 21-year-old office worker who was nearby when the mobile battery caught fire spoke to NHK in an interview. The man said that he was sitting next to the woman who owned the battery. All of a sudden, something spurted out of the bag. This was followed by flames, which caused minor burns to his right arm.
He said, “After the flames rose, the woman removed her smartphone from the battery, so only the battery was burning. The passengers who saw this calmly used a fire extinguisher in the car to put out the fire. People who didn’t know what was going on were panicking, and it was like dominoes falling all around, and I felt my life was in danger.”
