Proceedings of the International Symposium on Engineering Lessons Learned fromthe 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, March 1-4, 2012, Tokyo, JapanDAMAGE AND EFFECTS CAUSED BY TSUNAMIFIRES: FIRE SPREAD, FIRE FIGHTING AND
EVACUATION
Akihiko HOKUGO1, Tomoaki NISHINO2 and Takuya INADA3
1

Professor, Center for Urban Safety and Security, Kobe University,
Kobe, Japan, hokugo@kobe-u.ac.jp
2
Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture, Kobe University,
Kobe, Japan, tomoaki.1098@dolphin.kobe-u.ac.jp
3
Graduate Student, Department of Architecture, Kobe University,
Kobe, Japan, inada1670@gmail.com

ABSTRACT: The Great East Japan Earthquake triggered fire outbreaks in many
structures and buildings including hazardous-material facilities. The tsunami induced by
the Earthquake also produced a huge impact under which various tank and gas-cylinder
facilities, automobiles, etc. were damaged and caused to leak hazardous materials, suchas gas and gasoline. In addition, the tsunami swept away numerous objects, causing
collisions between objects and sparks from broken electric cables. Under such situations,fires broke out at various points in the affected region, some escalating to large-scaleurban fires or forest fires. Many of the people that had been evacuated from thetsunami-affected zone had to be evacuated a second time to escape from the spreadingand escalating fires.
Key Words: Great East Japan earthquake, Tsunami Fire, Fire Spread, Fire Fighting,Evacuation

INTRODUCTION
For the fire investigation, it is better to come to the fire sites as soon as possible because of theuntouched evidences of fires. But this time, it is only two weeks after the earthquake and tsunami fires
as the first responses and restoration activities are taking places in the affected places and it wasdifficult to travel to the affected places. It was also difficult for the fire stations to conduct fire
investigation because of rescue activities.
The fire spread area was so wide, it is commonly recognized among researchers of universities
and research institutes that cooperation is necessary to share information of earthquake fires andtsunami fires. This paper is mainly based on an interim report of this kind of cooperation organized by
the Japan Association for Fire Science and Engineering (2011).

STATUS OF FIRE BRAEAKOUT
According to the Fire and Disaster Management Agency, the number of related fires was 286; thenumber of fires in Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima Prefectures was 169, of which 144 occurred in43

coastal municipalities. In the region seriously damaged by the tsunami, firefighting services were notable to conduct their full capability, and many fires were not even counted in the fire statistics.
Fig. 1 shows fires which had simultaneous occurred in each houses after the shock of the tsunami
in Natori City. In Otsuchi Town, official record of fires are just one, but at least seven tsunami fires
could be counted through videos and photographs taken by the local people and cameramen of
self-defense force, governmental bureau and mass media. Fig. 2 shows one fire site in Otsuchi Town at
16:00 about forty minutes after the tsunami. As this site is covered with six meters high water, the fire
did not spread so much and this fire was not officially recorded.

Fig. 1

Video taken from an airplane on 11th March 2011 at a coastal lines of Natori city, Miyagi
prefecture offered by the Tohoku Regional Developing Bureau of
Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (TBC,2011)

Fig. 2 Tsunami fire at 16:00 11th March 2011 in Ando distict of Otsuchi town, Iwate prefecture(offered by Mr.Toru Suzuki, a volunteer fire fighter of Otsuchi town volunteer fire company)

44

Table 1 shows that number of tsunami fires are dominant in Iwate and Miyagi Prefectures. Besides
these tsunami fires there are many small fires which is not recorded as the fire of Fig. 2 because there
are scarce evidence of fire remained afterwards. For the estimation of tsunami fire occurrence andcountermeasure of these fires, it is necessary to collect data of these fire occurrences through videos
and photographs and interviews to local people who were at the fire sites.
Table 1 Number of tsunami fires and earthquake fires

Prefecture
Aomori
Iwate
Miyagi
Fukushima
Ibaragi
Akita
Gunma
Chiba
SaitamaTokyo
Kanagawa
Total

unified by JAFSE(2011) and Kindai-Syobo-Sya(2012)
Tsunami Fire Earthquake Fire Unknown Total
6 (46%)
70
13
27 (63%)13
343
81 (60%)459135
4 (17%)19
023
6 (19%)
19
6
31
0
1
0
1
0
2
0
2
0
10
6
16
0
12
0
12
0
33
0
33
0
6
0
6
124(39%)
167
24
315

Official Record(N of Fires)
5
34
135
11
31
1
2
16
12
33
6
286

Investigation: Japan Association for Fire Science and Engineering (2011), Kindai-Syobo(2012)
Official record: FDMA (2011)

TSUNAMI-INDUCED FIRE BREAKOUT PATTERNSMost of the fires related to tsunami broke out in either of the following patterns:
1) valves and gas-pressure regulator of propane tanks at home were destroyed in the rolling wooden
one or two story houses which were hit by tsunami, and then leaked propane gas caused fires in aroom of floating houses or sometimes rolling propane tanks floating in the water with flame jet
ignite a fire at reaching buildings or materials of collapsed wooden houses. There were also somecases that rolling propane tanks drifted in the water ejecting white smoke of flammable gas withno flame and reached to edge of flooded area and afterward exploded;

Fig.3 Rolling houses which were hit by tsunami at Otsuchi Town with sand smoke(video taken by Akihiro Sato(2011) )45

2) fuel tank and vehicle fuel filler pipe were destroyed when automobiles swept away by the tsunami
were smashed against buildings, and leaked gasoline caused fires;Fig.4 Automobiles were smashed into a gymnasium of Kesenelementary school in Rikuzen Takada city and caught fires.

3) Oil-storage tanks etc. of industrial plants handling flammable liquid in harbors, ships and fishboats were destroyed by the tsunami, and the leaked oil being absorbed to timber and othermaterials from collapsed buildings etc. caused fires like wick combustion.

Fig. 5 Floating Oil-storage tanks which were destroyed by the tsunami in Kesennuma Harbor.
(video offered by Japan Coast Guard)

Some people who remained in the wooden houses until the tsunami reached their home noticed thecases of pattern-1 fire at nearby houses, and then they survived after a great struggle. Some people
noticed rolling propane tanks with flame jet drifting on the water and causing fires at buildings ormaterials of collapsed wooden houses.

46

Fig. 6 shows one case of this pattern-1 without direct eyewitness. Mr. Toru Suzuki a volunteer firefighter of Otsuchi Town volunteer fire company took this photograph at 15:26 (six minutes after thehit of the tsunami) 11th March 2011 in Ando District of Otsuchi Town. He passed through this point
before the tsunami and did not notice a fire around here and heard the sound of propane gas tank
explosion after the hit of tsunami before he reached this viewpoint. He noticed that materials of
collapsed building were burning.
There are some possibilities of fire caused by gasoline leaked from automobiles or fish boats, but it
may have taken some more time for propagation of gasoline fire to building materials. So the cause ofthis fire may be leaking propane gas tank. The tank may have been pushed into a house and there may
have been an explosion inside of the house. This estimation meets the size of fire of Fig.6. The
situation of this fire at 16:00 is shown at Fig.2. The location of Ando District is upper left side of Fig.3
where the district was covered with dust smoke and this means the impact of the tsunami wasdevastating.

Fire situation at 15:26 (six minutes after the hit of the tsunami) 11th March 2011.
One case of Pattern-1 at Ando district in Otsuchi town, Iwate Prefecture.
(offered by Mr.Toru Suzuki, a volunteer fire fighter of Otsuchi town volunteer fire company)
Fig. 6In many cases of pattern-2 fire, a number of automobiles parked in front of a building were washed
up by the tsunami and crashed against the building, bursting into flames near the wall of the building.
Fig.7 shows one typical case. After the earthquake, local people came to the ground of this elementary
school with their automobiles in anticipation of tsunami. There was about thirty to forty parking
automobiles in front of the gymnasium. When the tsunami reached here, about ten automobiles were
pushed into the gymnasium and seven automobiles were piled up between the gymnasium and theelementary school building. A teacher at the school who have evacuated to a mountain behind theelementary school heard the sound of electric short and explosion from the gymnasium and noticed asmoke coming out of the gymnasium. Local people also heard the sound of explosion few minutes
after the hit of tsunami and notice that the third of roof of the gymnasium blown off as shown in theleft side photograph of Fig.7. There may have been a explosion of gasoline which were leaked fromthe tanks of automobiles pushed into the gymnasium by the tsunami. Fig.4 shows inside of the
gymnasium.

47

Fig.7 Automobiles fire inside of the gymnasium at Kesen elementary school( photograph taken and offered by local people )The massive fire at Kesennuma Bay was a typical pattern-3 fire. Oil flowing out of the destroyed
oil tanks at Kesennuma Port adsorbed to farming rafts and to the materials of collapsed wooden houses
swept by the tsunami, and was ignited into flames. These blazing objects, covering some water surface,
drifted from Kesennuma Bay outwards to Oshima Strait and reached the tsunami-flooded coastal area
where the fire spread to ships, automobiles, factories, houses and forests. These blazing objects also
drifted inwards to Shishiori District where already pattern-1 fires broke out just after the tsunami
reached there as shown in Fig. 8 and Fig. 9. The people who evacuated to tsunami evacuationbuildings near the pier of Shishiori were surrounded by these two types of fires until next morning.

Fig. 8 Blazing objects drifting right to left toward Shishiori(video offered by Japan Coast Guard)

Fig.9 Pattern-1 fires at Shishiori district(Zerocounts(2011))

The proportion and rate of occurrence of these three patterns of tsunami induced fires are
unknown because there is a lack of physical evidence and although there are some verbal evidence but
not yet organized to see whole picture.
There are also other patterns of fire occurrence related to tsunami other than these three patterns
of tsunami. For example, fires from oil heater in use at tsunami hit houses and electrical short fires
from batteries of automobiles flooded by sea water (Hagimoto (2011)).

48

FIRE SPREAD AND ESCALATION
Spread of a fire depends on the distribution of Combustible materials. As the tsunami hit wooden
housing area, Most of the wooden houses along the seashore were swept away and accumulated alongslope of hillside or in some cases along side of banks. Some materials from the devastated houses were
pulled out with backwash. Based on these formations of combustible materials, ignited fires werebrought by drifting houses and ignited boats onto accumulated materials and also some fires ignited at
the location of accumulated materials at slope of hillsides or side of banks.
In the pattern-1 fires in rolling houses with propane tanks, wooden houses in which a fire wasburning were forced to move with tsunami. Fig. 10 and Fig. 11 show one case of this moving housefire at tsunami flooded area in Minami-Sanriku City. In this case, there is no record of fire because
there was no combustible material around this burning house, so the fire didn’t spread.

Fig. 10 Moving house fire on water at tsunami
flooded area in Minami-Sanriku city
(ZANGIEFCHAMP (2011))

Fig. 11 Moving house firein Minami-Sanriku city
(TBC(2011))

Fig. 12 shows one case of the pattern-1, a rolling propane tank floating in the water with flame jet
ignite fire at broken buildings at Origasa Districit in Yamada Town, Iwate prefecture. Depth of tsunami
was about 6 meters at the fire origin of this burnt area. It seems that the height of flooded water
decreased when the burning propane tank reached the site to cause a fire as shown in Fig. 13.

Fig. 12

Fire spread of pattern-1 fire to broken houses at the edge of tsunami flooded area
( Origasa districit in Yamada town, Iwate prefecture )49

Fig. 13 Fire spread at Origasa district at 16:07 of 11th March 2011
( photograph taken and offered by local people )Fig. 14Fire spread of pattern-1 fire to few houses remained at tsunami flooded area
( Osawa districit in Yamada town, Iwate prefecture )Fig. 15

Fire spread of pattern-1 fire to houses at hillslope of tsunami flooded area
( Akahama districit in Otsuchi town, Iwate prefecture )50

Fig. 16 . Fire situation at 15:38 (18 minutes after the hit of the tsunami) 11th March 2011.
at Akahama districit in Otsuchi town, Iwate prefecture (JMSDF, 2011)

Fig. 17

Fire spread of pattern-1 fire to houses at edge of tsunami flooded area
( Hisanohama districit in Iwaki city, Fukushima prefecture )Fig.14 shows one fire site where a drifting burning house reached here to spread fire to remainedhouses. As the number of existed houses were limited, the area of fire spread is small.
Fig.15 and Fig.17 show cases where there are testimonies that a leaking propane tank exploded toignite a fire after the tsunami hit there. Fig.16 shows the fire situation eighteen minutes after thetsunami hit this district. As the height above sea level of this area is about 13 meters, there was notsunami water here at this time. There were wooden houses existed around here, fire spread to thesewooden houses. Four local people around here tried to block fire with hydraulic shovel andextinguished fire with home hose lines (JAFSE ,2011) .
Fig.18, Fig.21, Fig.24, Fig.27 and Fig.28 show fire sites where multiple fires occurred in
combustible material bed along hillslope of tsunami flooded area. This means that there is highprobability of fire occurrence in this kind of beds and fires tend to spread widely around these beds.

51

Fig. 18 Fire spread of fires to houses at hillslope of tsunami flooded area
( Tanohama districit in Yamada town, Iwate prefecture )Fig.19Fire situation at 16:15 11th March 2011 about one hour after the tsunami hit here
Tanohama districit in Yamada town (JGSDF, 2011)

Fig.20Fire situation earlier time than Fig.19 still after the tsunami hit here
Tanohama districit in Yamada town (Lakita, 2011)52

Fig. 21
Fire spread of fires to houses at hillslope of tsunami flooded area
( Center districit of Otsuchi town, Iwate prefecture )Fig. 22Height of tsunami above sea level at fire spread area.
( Center districit of Otsuchi town, Iwate prefecture )Fig. 23 Fire situation at 16:15 11th March 2011 about one hour after the tsunami hit here
Center districit of Otsuchi town (JGSDF, 2011)53

Fig. 24 Fire spread of fires to houses at hillslope of tsunami flooded area
( Kadonowaki districit of Ishinomaki city, Miyagi prefecture )Fig. 25

Height of tsunami above sea level at fire spread area.
( Kadonowaki districit of Ishinomaki city, Miyagi prefecture )Fig. 26 Fire situation at 15:53 11th March 2011 about one hour after the tsunami hit here
Kadonowaki districit of Ishinomaki city, Miyagi prefecture (Cocoxom ,2011)54

Fig. 27

Fire spread of fires to houses at slope of tsunami flooded area
( Shishiori districit of Kesennuma city, Miyagi prefecture )Fig. 28

Fire spread of fires to houses at slope of tsunami flooded area
( Yamada districit of Yamada town, Iwate prefecture )Fig. 29

Fire situation at 16:15 11th March 2011 about one hour after the tsunami hit here
Yamada districit in Yamada town (JGSDF, 2011)

Slope gradients of the fire sites of Fig.27 and Fig.28 are not so steep compared with other firesites shown in Fig.18 to Fig.26. It could be said that the burnt area tends to be wide at glacis slope.
Fig29 shows that width of combustible material bed is wide at this glacis slope.

55

Fig.30 Burn mark of pattern-2 automobile fires at the wall of Kadonowaki elementary school building.
( Kadonowaki districit in Ishinomaki city, Miyagi prefecture, photo taken on 11th April 2011 )In the pattern in which a fire was triggered by parked automobiles being washed up and smashedagainst buildings or in which fire was caused and spread by objects in flames drifting to built-up areas
or forests, the fire broke out in many cases on the periphery of the flooded zone, where wood debris
swept by the tsunami was accumulated in spaces among the wrecked houses.
Fig.30 shows one example of this kind of fire site. This fire site is rightmost fire origin shown in
Fig.24. The wall shown in Fig.30 has three automobile fire burn marks at the bottom of eachcolumns. The automobiles themselves seems to be removed in Fig.30. Fig.31 shows another exampleof this pattern-2 automobile fire shown in Fig.4 and Fig.7. Some fires shown in Fig.27 are said to becaused by propane gas tank and automobiles on which wooden materials piled up.

Fig. 31

Fire site of pattern-2 automobile fire at hillslope of tsunami flooded area
(Kesen elementary school, Rikucyutakada city, Iwate prefecture )56

(Google earth 06/04/2011)

Fig. 32

Fire site of pattern-3 leaked oil fires at Haber district Kesennuma city, Miyagi prefecture

Location of leaked oil fires
as shown in Fig.34
Location of building
fires as shown in
Fig.34

Fig. 33 Combustible material bed surrounded with red line in Haber district on 12th March 2011
The rightmost area caught fire on 14th March 2011 by unknown process (Bon Ishikawa ,2011)

Fig. 34 Flames at the rightmost are building fires ignited by drifting fires from left.
Flames at the center are oil leaked fires on the water. (NHK, 2011)57

In the pattern in which fire was initiated by hazardous material leaked out of oil tanks, drifting
objects in flames reached the coastal area flooded by the tsunami, resulting in the fire spreading to
nearby buildings and other objects in the vicinity of the coastal and wharf area.
Fig.32 shows one example of pattern-3 leaked oil fires. Some small burnt areas and the biggest
burnt area in Fig. 32 are not related to leaked oil fires. Small burnt areas are fires occurred at factories.
Hazardous materials used in the factories are seems to be ignited when the tsunami hit there. Because
the factories are not wooden structure, the buildings are not swept away by the tsunami, so the fires
spread only inside of the factory buildings. The biggest burnt area near Minami Kesennuma Station
is a fire occurred on 14th March 2011 by unknown reason. This area before the fire is shown in Fig.33.
The rightmost area was combustible materials bed which was formed by the tsunami. Because of thedepth of the water after the tsunami around here might have been shallow or in chance, the drifting
fires didn’t reach this combustible materials bed. As this site is flat as shown in Fig.35, the shape of
combustible bed was formed like pyramid. There is a robust building at the top of the pyramid. In
other condition of tidal wave, the drifting fire could have been reached wider combustible material bed
to spread wider area.

Fig. 35

Fig. 36

Fire site of pattern-3 leaked oil fires at Haber district
Kesennuma city, Miyagi prefecture

Fire site of factory fire at Sunakomae district of Oofunato city, Iwate prefecture58

Fig.36 shows other type of fire spread formation. In this fire site, there were some factories
involved. The stream of tsunami around here was very strong from south to north, combustible
materials accumulated between buildings of few factories and there propane tank fire or automobile
fire might have occurred.

Fig. 37

Fire site in flat area, Yuriage district in Natori city, Miyagi prefecture

Fig.37 shows one example of fire spread in flat area. Burnt area depends on distribution of
combustible materials and densely built up wooden housing area. There are variety of distribution of
combustible materials from wooden houses hit by tsunami. Conditions of density of housing, open
spaces and obstacles like railroad and highway banks make this variety. This time burnt areas in flatarea were limited.
Table 2 shows burnt area of major fires. The total burned area was approximately 65 ha (hectare),excluding the extensive area of burned forests.

Table 2Prefecture

Iwate

Miyagi

Fukushima

Distribution of Fire Spread Area of Urban Fires occurred
around boundary line of Flooding Areas from Tsunami

Municipality
Noda Village
Miyako City
Yamada Town
Otsuchi Town
Oofunato City
Rikuzentakada City
Kesennuma City
Minamisanriku Town
Ishinomaki City
Sendai City
Natori City
Watari Town
Soma City
Iwaki City

10～20ha5～10ha

1～5ha

1
1

2

0.3～1ha1
43
2～0.3ha
1
1

1
1

1
1

1

1
2

1
1

1
2
1
1

Only Spread fire are included. There were many unidentified small fires.

59

STATUS OF EVACUATION
Status of evacuation
As the spread fires in district of residence were almost limited in tsunami flooded area, most of thelocal people evacuated outside of tsunami flooded area. In the case of evacuation to designatedtsunami evacuation building or to nearby buildings, when fires occurred the evacuees in tsunami
evacuation buildings or nearby buildings had to be evacuated once again as the fire was spreading to
the building, but with great difficulty since the surrounding area was submerged in tsunami water andthey had to evacuate at the meantime of tsunami interval. In case of weak person, they had to hide in
the safe fire compartment of the building and the supporter fought the fire.

Fig. 38 Tsunami Evacuation Buildings at Harbor district in Kesennuma (Bon Ishikawa, 2011)(1st May 2011)(Nijiiro-crayon 2011)

Fig. 39 Local people evacuated up to hillside after automobile fire occurred in front of
Kadonowaki elementary school where they evacuated from the tsunami

60

CONCLUSIONS

Hazardous materials are main factor to occurrence of tsunami fires. Combustible materials frombroken houses hit by tsunami determine the possibility of fire spread. Drifting materials, houses andboats contribute to fire spread.
It is difficult to evacuate from tsunami evacuation buildings and collapsed houses in case of fire,
it is necessary to consider secondary evacuation routes, safe zone in buildings, fire extinguishingequipments or other strategies.

Fig. 40 Mechanism of tsunami fire and responses

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I appreciate all participants’ efforts to share information through the publication of the preliminary
report of investigation on earthquake and tsunami fires.

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