A conflagration erupted at an Akihabara construction injured nine and caused spectacular scenes as emergency personnel and their vehicles packed streets and smoke clogged the air.
Nine construction workers were hospitalized with injuries from smoke inhalation, and one man was severely injured by same.
The fire began around 1PM on the afternoon of the 23rd, in the Sumitomo construction site in Akihabara, at the intersection near the Sofmap and former Mitsubishi buildings.
It apparently started in a basement portion of the construction site, by sparks from a wielder’s torch leaping into nearby polystyrene, which soon ignited the surrounding area.
150 people were said to have been working in the immediate vicinity of the basement construction area.
During this time smoke from the scene became visible and dozens of fire trucks and ambulances were dispatched to deal with the incident.
The extent of the fire also caused the neighboring areas to be evacuated.
By 3PM the smoke had created quite the spectacle:
Via Akiba Blog.
Fortunately, the Tokyo emergency services do not mess around in such cases…
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That's what they get for trying to steamroll-ubanise Akiba. Can't stand all the commercial crap going on there, I mean 3 McDonalds, seriously!?
Akihabara's sole purpose is commerce. Besides, Ikebukuro only has 2 (there are only 2 near me, for that matter).
Well obviously it's all commerce. But they're tearing down the charm of Akiba and replacing it with giant sterile corporate commerce, like what they're doing all over Tokyo, like in Harajuku. Seriously, how many giant whitegood retailers do you need in Akiba? How can these businesses possibly survive in the long run?
At least they're not just knocking it all down for the sake of a road like Shimokita I guess...
(Oh, and I was wrong, there's 4 McDonalds- 3 within maybe 50 metres of Akiba station. That's just too absurd)
It's a grubby mess, and a tourist trap to boot. It could use some modernisation.
You suggesting someone took a flamethrower to the place to renovate it, Artefact? lol
Tourist trap, exactly. I couldn't find my way around there even with an English labeled map! Mostly due to unnamed streets, I guess.
Unnamed streets are something you'll find all over Tokyo, or Japan for that matter.
When I lived in an apartment to the north of Ueno and took a taxi home, the best I could do was have the driver take me to the nearest train station (Minami-senjuu) and then hike myself the last 10 blocks on foot since I couldn't remember my street address...
Some places in America have an average of 2 McDonald's and 3 Starbucks' per block or something like that. In San Fransisco you can see intersections with 2-3 Starbucks across the street from each other.
And thats why so many starbucks are going out of business in some areas.
┐(´―`)┌
In New Zealand, its not normally so bad, but theres a block near my house with 1 burger king, 1 mc donalds, 1 kfc, 3 fish and chip shops, 1 hells pizza and a dominoes pizza. All within ~50m of each other.
There is a starbucks inside of a starbucks in the city I live in. By that I mean the building had a smaller starbucks with it's own counter and everything in another section of the same building, which only housed a Starbucks. Separate entrance and everything. Though they got rid of the second one earlier this year, probably due to the recession.
I can't see because of all the smoke.
Looks like someone was fapping too hard.
I lol'd.
What's with the red arrows?
UFO?
In picture 9 there is an UFO.
Oh god it's true!
most people are calling it a streetlight
Don't bring your fancy jargon into this discussion dammit.
It's pointing at the smoke which clearly cannot be seen.
Seems like more stuff's been happening around Akiba within the past few months. Maybe Chaos;HEAd was a coincidence? :-/ But srsly, it's a bit disturbing.
What other Akiba-esque events do you speak of?
I hope that no doujin has been injured
Bring on the Super Haz-Mat!!!
Welder's torch, hell... I think it's otaku rage which sparked the blaze.
OMFG It's a 9/11 in Japan.
Bring on the conspiracies!
You never see so many fire engines like that in my country just for one building blaze.
are those firemen cosplayers? XDD
Quote: 150 people were said to have been working in the immediate vicinity of the basement construction area.
probably they're building a real,stories-feet mecha.
Nooo! The holy land D:
DAMNIT, SHANA-TAN!
I TAKE CREDIT TO ANNOUNCE THAT LORD GIBIL OF THE FIRE ELEMENT DID THIS AS GOD IS HIS BROTHER! THANK YOU LORD GIBIL!