Explosion at Army facility near Tokyo draws criticism from Japanese
By Erik Slavin
Stars and Stripes
Published: August 25, 2015
An explosion at the U.S. Army's Sagami Depot in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, 34 miles from Tokyo Station, occurred inside a one-story, concrete warehouse at about 12:45 a.m., Aug. 24, 2015. The explosion shot up fireballs and some fireworks-like blasts that were visible miles away.
James Kimber/Stars and Stripes
A blast at a U.S. Army depot outside Tokyo sparked a fire that burned for hours early Monday and set off secondary explosions. Officials said there were no apparent injuries.
YOKOHAMA, Japan — The Army is investigating an explosion at Sagami Depot outside Tokyo amid calls from Japanese officials to take further steps to minimize the chances of future accidents.
Initial findings deemed it unlikely that criminal activity started the warehouse explosion early Monday, the Army said in a statement Tuesday afternoon. No injuries were reported.
The 12:45 a.m. explosion produced fireballs and streaking flames visible far from the depot in Sagamihara city, which is 34 miles from Tokyo Station. The fire smoldered for more than six hours before dying out, Army and Japanese fire officials said.
The explosion set off dozens of fire extinguishers and pressurized oxygen canisters stored inside the building, Army officials said.
The Army initially said some canisters contained Freon and nitrogen, but further inquiries ruled that out, officials said Tuesday.
After the explosion, U.S. Army Garrison Japan ordered its units to conduct safety checks at the depot, home to about 500 Japanese and 300 U.S. personnel.
“Commanders were instructed to double-check their storage facilities while the investigation continues to determine the cause of the explosion,” Army spokesman Lt. Col. Kevin Toner said Tuesday.
Sagamihara Mayor Toshio Kayama called on the U.S. military to provide a thorough response to the explosion during a Monday meeting with Col. William Johnson, commander of U.S. Army Garrison Japan.
“Such an accident at the depot, which is located in an urban area, caused great fear to residents in the surrounding community and threatened the safety of citizens,” according to a transcript of Kayama’s statement to Johnson. “The city of Sagamihara files a strong protest and calls for a prompt investigation into the cause of the accident and release of the findings to the public.”
The explosion occurred in a warehouse about 500 yards from the fence line of the facility, which is across from the city’s main train station.
Base and Sagamihara city firefighters let the blaze burn out rather than fight it with water because of uncertainty about the approximately 9,700-square-foot building’s contents. The fire posed no threat to nearby structures, officials said.
The Army plans to share the final investigation report with the Japanese government, but did not set a timetable for its release.
“The length of investigations vary, and we will take as much time as necessary to try to determine the probable cause of the explosion,” the Army said Tuesday.
The Japanese government called on the Army to improve its storage processes.
“This (incident) caused concerns to the people living in the neighborhood,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference. “As to the root cause analysis and prevention mechanisms for the future, the Japanese government strongly requests to enhance measures going forward.”
Sagami Depot — about seven miles from Camp Zama, home to thousands of U.S. soldiers and Japan Self-Defense Forces personnel — opened in 1935 as a Japanese army arsenal. The U.S. Army took over the property in 1945 and uses it as a storage and logistics facility. The roughly 500-acre property includes 86 acres of U.S.-Japanese joint-use land, and 25 acres dedicated to a public park. In July, Army officials said the U.S. had returned 42 acres of Sagami Depot to Japan last year that had been used for Army family housing
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TOKYO, JAPAN
A blast at a U.S. Army depot outside Tokyo sparked a fire that burned for hours early Monday and set off secondary explosions. Officials said there were no apparent injuries.
The explosion at Sagami Depot in Kanagawa Prefecture, 34 miles from downtown Tokyo, occurred inside a one-story, concrete warehouse at about 12:45 a.m., Army spokesman Lt. Col. Kevin Toner said.
YouTube vidoes posted by Japanese residents show the explosion shot up fireballs and some fireworkslike blasts that were visible miles away.
The cause of the explosion was not immediately known, Toner said, adding that the building housed tanks of compressed air, nitrogen, oxygen and Freon.
“There are no indications of injuries,” Toner said in an email message. “The building that exploded was not designated as a hazardous material storage facility.”
Sagami Depot does not normally store ammunition or radiological materials, Toner said.
Paint fumes and the smell of charred wood lingered at the building and surrounding area at midday. Debris was mostly contained within 50 yards of the building, although some had been recovered as far as about 300 yards away, according to investigators at the scene.
Inside the building, punctured gas canisters laid strewn around the floor, while plywood boxes on one side appeared blackened by smoke, but otherwise intact. A partially melted phone found in the debris still worked, despite the damage.
Firefighters from a base station a block away arrived soon after the explosion, base officials said.
Sagamihara city’s fire department dispatched 14 trucks and 51 firefighters to the blaze, which smoldered for more than six hours until finally dying out at 7:09 a.m., department spokesman Satomi Kurihara said.
The firefighters did not attempt to extinguish the fire with water, based on the judgment of U.S. military officials at the scene, who were uncertain about what materials the building might have contained, Kurihara said.
The fire posed no threat to nearby structures, Kurihara said.
Aerial footage on Japan’s NHK television showed a broad warehouse with a large section missing from the roof. The NHK camera zoomed in on what appeared to be a small, blackened cylindrical object lying on grass outside of the building.
The building’s walls remain intact, but the windows and doors sustained damage, Toner said.
Sagami is a roughly 500-acre property located near Sagamihara Station. There were no reports of the fire spreading beyond the base. The fire happened 550 yards from the depot fence line, Kurihara said.
The depot is mostly unoccupied and intended to house soldiers, hospital staff, munitions and other equipment in the event of a wartime mass deployment, military officials at the scene said Monday.
About 500 Japanese and 300 Americans work there, base officials said. The depot is about seven miles from Camp Zama, home to thousands of U.S. soldiers and Japan Self-Defense Forces personnel.
In July, Army officials said the U.S. had returned 42 acres of Sagami Depot to Japan last year that had been used for Army family housing.
Another 86 acres have been earmarked for joint use by the U.S. and Japanese governments since 2012, Toner said last month.
Stars and Stripes reporters James Kimber and Chiyomi Sumida contributed to this report.