Recent FDMA Developments

Summary of the “Report on the Review Meeting for Fire
Prevention Measures and Approach to Firefighting
Operations after the Warehouse Fire in Miyoshi Town,
Saitama Prefecture” (Part Two)
Kouta Isaki, Fire Prevention Division, FDMA
Continuing from the previous issue, in this paper I would like to continue summarizing the “Report on the Review
Meeting for Fire Prevention Measures and Approach to Firefighting Operations after the Warehouse Fire in Miyoshi
Town, Saitama Prefecture” created on June 2017.
It should be noted that the opinion portion of this paper reflects my own personal view.

Chapter 3 Status of Firefighting Activities
1. Measures for fire incidents(1) Current firefighting activities
A fire occurred on February 16, 2017 in the scrap
material room on the 1st floor of the warehouse (the timeis under investigation), and this was perceived at 09:14
by the Fire Department of the Iruma East Regional
Firefighting Union by a 119 ambulance call from anindividual related to the fire (using a mobile phone).
In the first mobilization, one commanding team, fivefirefighting teams (with 3 water tank trucks and 2pumpers), one rescue team and one emergency
support team, a total of eight teams, went into action.
Although a water-discharge system was establishedquickly and the fire in the scrap material room on the1st floor, the origin of the fire, was suppressed early on,
the fire spread to the 2nd floor through the belt
conveyor and the power of the fire was at its peak on
the 2nd floor.
At 09:30, as the second mobilization was requested,
two firefighting teams (1 water tank truck and 1pumper) went into action, and, in accordance with theFirefighting Mutual Support Contract in Saitama
Prefecture, one commanding team and one firefighting
team were sent to the site from Western Fire
Department of Saitama Prefecture as an advanceparty. Since it was decided that firefighting would takerather a long time due to the speed at which the firewas spreading and the smaller firefighting force, athird mobilization as well as support from within thesecond block support in the Prefecture wererequested, and then support from Saitama Prefecture
overall was requested to the Governor of Saitama
Prefecture, which resulted in the mobilization ofmultiple firefighting teams in the early part of the firstday, including the Prefectural and Saitama Smart
Team, all of them participating in the firefightingactivities.
Although the third mobilization and prefectural support
had been realized and the firefighters were spread all
around the building, entry to the inside of the building
and the discharging of water were difficult because thequantity of storage in the warehouse was so large andthere were only a small number of openings on the2nd floor.
Furthermore, the firefighters were occasionally forced
to pull back because of the explosive combustions onthat first day, but they continued to fight the fire by
rearranging their formation.
Note that all employees were confirmed to have safely
evacuated within 40 minutes of the breaking out, andthere was no risk of the fire spreading to otherbuildings.

Status inside the scrap material room12

On the second day of the incident and thereafter, thedemolition of external walls using large-scale heavymachinery from private companies and thedischarging of water continued. At 09:30 on February
22, when there was no further danger of the fire
spreading, the jurisdictional fire department declared
the fire to have been suppressed, which marked thestart of processing the remaining fire and watch
activities, and at 17:00 on February 28 they declared
the full containment of the fire.

Activity status of removing firefighting obstacles(2) Status of water sources for firefighting(4) Status of securing safety

The firefighting was conducted using five firefighting
water tanks and eight fire hydrants both inside andoutside the warehouse land, and sufficient water
sources were secured during the initial activities.
However, when water discharge was conducted using
fire engines and water cannons after demolishing theexternal walls, a sufficient volume of water was notalways available.

Since explosions were heard and explosive
combustions observed on the day of the outbreak andon the 4th and 5th days of firefighting, and because
sounds similar to spray cans exploding were also
heard from time to time, entry into the building had tobe considered cautiously.

This was caused by the fire hydrants mainly being
installed at the south side of the building, which
prevented the necessary volume of water to besourced for the bulk discharge of water, however,necessary measures were taken, such as increasing
the supply pressure in the early stages from theoutbreak of the fire.
(3) Activity status using heavy machinery
Although the initial demolition of external walls wasconducted by firefighting squads using their own
engine cutters, which took a long time to create theopenings, we requested the use of heavy machinery
owned by private companies to conduct thelarge-scale demolition of the outer walls from thesecond day.
Although the demolition of the walls using private
heavy machinery also required consideration of thefire status inside the building and the building structure
itself as well as the additional problems of securing
operators, the openings thus created were effective forboth injecting water and exhausting smoke and heat.

Although there was also a danger of collapse of piled
up cardboard and other objects, we continued thedischarge of water by entry into the building as muchas possible while taking care of safety measures.
2. Evaluation of firefighting activities
In this fire, since the evacuation was completed early
and there was little risk of the fire spreading to nearby
areas, we extended the firefighting by focusing thesafety management on considerations of thecharacteristics of the warehouse. Although thesupporting teams arrived in the early stages and wecontinued activities by discharging water from both
inside and outside the building, we received the impactof a larger fire spread due to the explosive
combustions in the midst of these activities, which isconsidered to be the reason we required six days tosuppress the fire and 12 days for full containment.
From the viewpoint of early suppression, some items
still remain as future issues such as the further
assurance of vehicles which allow the bulk dischargeof water and contracts with private companies toassure the availability of heavy machinery to demolishwalls, and water supply trucks and mixer trucks toassure water sources.

13Recent FDMA Developments

Fire spread on the west side

Fire spread on the east side

Chapter 4 Proposal

Note, however, that for the method of implementation,with the recent background of diversification ofwarehouse uses, it is considered more appropriate for
MLIT to first show the basic policy to realize the secureclosing of shutters, and then for the individual
business owner to take the necessary measures usingtheir own ideas along with the basic policy.

1. Measures for preventing the initial spread of
the fire
Measures to make sure the spread of fire is stopped
in the initial stages shall be taken after reflecting on
the fact that the initial fire could not be extinguishedbecause the fire compartments could not be formed
appropriately and the initial actions were notsufficiently taken.
(1) Measures regarding the secure operation offire shutters(I) Reinforcement of damage prevention for the shortcircuit of wires
At MLIT, policy making is necessary to prevent
damage from the short circuit of wires by mandatinglarge-scale warehouses to take any one of thefollowing measures.
--Measures to localize damage from the short circuitof a wire by such means as installing a breaker for
every block of a certain length
Measures to securely prevent the occurrence of ashort circuit at the junction between an analog
detector and the wire by such means as increasing
the resistance using fire-proof tape
Note that this does not apply to cases where
measures are taken to prevent the wire being
heated to a high temperature in the fire by suchmeans as installation of a sprinkler system.

(II) Measures to prevent fire shutter closure difficulties
At MLIT, policy making is necessary, in collaboration
with the FDMA, to strengthen the measures to prevent
fire shutter closure difficulties targeting thoselarge-scale warehouses which are considered to berelatively high risk as with (I).

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More specifically, it is assumed that the businessowners should strengthen their own inspections andas a mechanism to check the status of suchinspections the system should be organized based on
the following procedures.
i)

At MLIT, maintenance management guidelines
including the following content shall be created andshall be widely known to business owners whooperate warehouses.

a. Points of attention for the inspection of fire shutters○ The following items shall be thoroughly inspectedby clarifying the inspection schedule specificallychecking the presence of intersections withconveyors.
-Detectors and fire shutters shall work correctly.

-Objects that can cause fire shutter closure
difficulties are not left unattended.

-The system interlocking with the conveyors
shall work correctly in conjunction with the fireshutters.

○ The owner of maintenance for the fire shutters
including the inspection of the above items(hereinafter “maintenance owner”) shall beappointed.
○ The maintenance owner shall record the result of
the inspection and store such record document
appropriately.

b. Points of attention for inspection at a new
installation or a change of conveyors○ When a conveyor is newly installed or changed,
the following items shall be thoroughly inspected.
-

Conveyor is not installed in a position which
prevents the fire shutter closing.

-It must be confirmed that, in the case of aconveyor with an interlocking system, theinterlocking system has a mechanism (fail-safemechanism) whereby the conveyor does notprevent the shutter closing even when theinterlocking system loses power or the relevant
wire causes a short circuit.

-To secure evacuation safety, the area which
employees use continuously for working shallconform to the regulations in the BuildingStandards Act for living space (for example, thesetting of a walking distance to safely reach theevacuation stairs directly and the installation ofemergency lights).

○ An owner shall be appointed to confirm theconformance of the above items in the event of
installing a conveyor or changing the conveyors
in a warehouse (hereinafter “installation owner”).
○ The installation owner shall record the result of
the inspection and store such record document
appropriately.
ii) MLIT shall instruct the business owners oflarge-scale warehouses to create a maintenancemanagement plan based on the maintenanceguidelines shown in i) above for each warehouseand execute the plan.

iii) The specified administration agency shall in
conjunction with the fire department investigatethat the maintenance management plans in ii) arecreated and appropriately executed to securesafety.
It should be noted that, since these points of attention
are also preferably considered on the base ofvoluntary adoption by warehouses other thanlarge-scale warehouses, MLIT should in conjunction
with the FDMA make these known to the wider
community.
(2) Initial actions by business owners
Business owners are required to implement highly
effective firefighting training periodically such as
water-discharge exercises actually using the outdoor
fire hydrants or indoor fire hydrants, in order toimprove the effectiveness of initial actions after thebreakout of a fire.
It is also necessary to execute the training in order tomake the 119 emergency call as quickly as possibleby assuming an exact location for the fire or burningmaterials and executing a simulated emergency call ina role-playing style.
Although no human casualties from delayed
evacuation occurred in this fire this time, evacuation
training focusing on the following items is effective toenable the quick and appropriate evacuation of many
employees in the event of a fire.
-By assuming that the fire shutters are alreadyclosed, it is necessary to confirm that each
employee has identified the evacuation route tooutside through the side gates and that all
employees working inside can smoothly evacuate
before any real danger appears by actually walking
along such routes. Also, the necessary
improvement points identified during the training,such as those concerning evacuation routes andthe system, shall actually be implemented.

-By assuming that some fire shutters are not closed
in an area where evacuation has been completed,
it is required to confirm the procedure to start themanual operation of equipment near the fireshutters.

The FDMA should be engaged in promotion activities
whereby business owners plan such effective training
sessions to meet the situations of large-scale
warehouses and all the owners should actually
implement such training.

Setting the openings

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Recent FDMA Developments

Demolishing an opening

2. Measures tofirefighting

implement

moreefficient

guidelines aredepartments.

notcreatedin80%of

these

To be prepared for cases where a fire cannot be
suppressed in the early stages, it is necessary tobuild an environment which allows more efficient
firefighting.

Accordingly, in order to execute quick and appropriate
firefighting paying full attention to the safety of
firefighters in the event of a fire in a large-scale
warehouse, it is necessary to define specific activity
guidelines for such firefighting at each fire department
ahead of time.

(1) Strengthening measures in the fire department(iii) Efficient firefighting squad activities for wide areas
and extended periods(i) Creating a security plan for each warehouse
To execute efficient firefighting activities for large-scale
warehouses, it is necessary for the Department tocreate a security plan which describes the activity
policy for responding to a fire in each warehouse as
well as critical information for firefighting such as thelocation/department of vehicles, entry routes,
firefighting water resources, disaster prevention centerand firefighting facilities. It is also essential that the fire
department implements training in accordance withsuch security plan in collaboration with the businessowners.
(ii) Creating firefighting guidelines for large-scale
warehouses
When a fire breaks out in a large-scale warehouse, thedifficulty level and the danger of firefighting activities
are high, meaning that there are more points to be
noted than for usual building fires. According to theresults of a questionnaire conducted with fire
departments governing large-scale warehouses, such

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During the fire at the warehouse in Miyoshi Town,
multiple firefighting squads were mobilized andexecuted activities for an extended period.
Since a fire at such a large-scale warehouse requires
controls including the assurance of safety
management for many teams and has so many areasof activities that need to be monitored over a wide area,
the role of the commanding team which centrally
governs the entire range of activities is particularly
important for efficient firefighting.
Therefore, engagements such as collaboration andenriched education are needed in order to realize
more efficient and orchestrated activities.

(iv) Closing contracts for demolition of exterior walls
and replenishment of water
Since large-scale warehouses only have a small
number of openings in the exterior walls, thefirefighters entry into the inside in the event of a fire isoften restricted, and the continuation of firefighting is
also difficult due to the sealed structure which causes
high density smoke and heat to be confined within.
In the case of the warehouse fire in Miyoshi Town, an
exterior wall of the warehouse was demolished using
heavy machinery from private companies whichallowed effective firefighting. As this case indicates, ineach fire department, it is also requested to close
contracts for demolishing activities and water
replenishing activities with local construction
companies or other parties.
In such cases, it is also effective to discuss and agree
how such expenses for support should be borne.
(v) Providing appropriate information to residents
To reduce the anxiety of residents, it is necessary for
firefighting bodies to provide on-site information on thefirefighting status, etc. to the residents. It is alsoessential to provide appropriate information to themass media in a timely manner.
For this purpose, it is effective to create manuals, etc.
ahead of time to provide this information smoothly.

a fire spreads widely in their warehouse, having anenvironment which allows firefighters to conduct
activities efficiently under the fighter’s-life-first policy
and completing the firefighting as early as possible isalso considered important in view of preventing thefurther loss of products inside the building.
Therefore, it is considered beneficial to demonstrate
methods used to smoothly fight fires as measures thatbusiness owners can engage with based on thelessons learned from the large-scale fire in Miyoshi
Town and the characteristics of large-scale
warehouses. Hence, the FDMA in collaboration with
MLIT should create guidelines for business owners inconsideration of the following points and promote theexecution of measures that meet the individual
situation at each warehouse.
(i) To prepare for the event of a fire breaking out on the2nd floor, it is effective to provide a gate which allows
the direct entry of firefighters using a ladder for
example, or a staircase and an emergency elevatorwith a compartmentalized attached room as aneffective route of entry.
(ii) When there is a fire compartment which does not
face an exterior wall of the warehouse, since suchcompartment can make firefighting extremely difficult,it is effective to implement the following measures.
-Provide a water discharge outlet from a connectedwater supply pipe in a room attached to the stairs
or in the lobby for an elevator.

-

In cases where a central vehicle road is provided,provide shutters which form a fire compartment inthis area with a smoke exhaust function whichremoves the smoke and install an outlet from aconnected water supply pipe in such acompartment.

-

In cases where there are no attached rooms orlobby or central vehicle roads mentioned above inthe central part of the building, install sprinklers inthis area.

(vi) Advisor system for large-scale fires, etc.
Since large-scale warehouses are growing in number
all over Japan, and the difficulties and dangers offirefighting are high when a fire spreads widely inthese warehouses, a knowledge base of experts is aneffective way to carry out more efficient firefighting.
(2) Guidelines on measures for reducing damage
in the early stages
It is considered that the owners of large-scale
warehouses can secure the minimum necessary fire
prevention level by correctly implementing themeasures described in 1. above. However, when such Conclusion
The FDMA will, on receiving the proposals in thisreport, implement engagements in collaboration withMLIT as (i) thorough execution of efficient training at
businesses to meet the situations at large-scalewarehouses, (ii) creation of a security plan for eachwarehouse by each fire department to execute

firefighting more efficiently and promote the closure ofcontracts with the private sector, and (iii) creation ofguidelines on providing routes to allow earlier entry tobuildings and methods of discharging water to thecentral parts of buildings.

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