Overview
- A fire at Takinogawa Third Elementary School on June 19 injured 11 people and was traced to a fourth-floor music preparation room.
- The school says a woman in her 40s who taught music told officials she washed her own clothes in a first-floor home economics room and was drying them in the preparation room when the blaze began.
- Investigators and school officials found the teacher’s personal electric heater and a circulator in the preparation room near the burned area.
- School leaders said other staff were not aware the teacher had been using those spaces for drying clothes and described the behavior as inappropriate while police are probing the blaze as accidental neglect.
- Kita Ward’s promised review will examine initial evacuation actions, facility oversight and staff communication and could lead to changes in school rules or personnel steps when the report is released.