- Author
- National Fire Protection Association
- Title
- Kobe. NFPA Fire Investigation Report.
- Coporate
- National Fire Protection Association, Quincy, MA
- Report
- Fire Investigation Report, 1996, 50 p.
- Keywords
- earthquakes | fire investigations | building construction | structural failure | fire protection | transportation | water supply | electrical power | natural gas | fire departments | building codes | standards | planning | weather effects | fire spread | ignition source | rescue | fire fighting
- Identifiers
- Hyogo-Ken Nanbu Earthquake (Kobe), Great Hanshin Disaster, Japan, January 17, 1995; earthquake preparedness; geological aspects; fire activity; utilities/infrastructure; utility restoration; mixed occupancies; fire-resistive construction; accessibility; critical facilities; population preparedness; coordination of activities
- Abstract
- On Tuesday, January 17, 1995, at 5:46 a.m. (Japan Standard Time), a 20-second earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Ricter Scale occurred near the Japanese port of Kobe, about 500 km (311 mi) southwest of Tokyo. The quake, which was an order of magnitude larger than the Northridge Earthquake in January 1994, killed more than 6,000 people, injured at least 30,000 and left more than 300,000 people homeless. More than 100,000 buildings were severly damaged or destroyed by the quake and the fires it caused. 148 separate fires destroyed 6,513 buildings and an area of 624,671 m² (0.24 sq mi). The total dollar loss, including damage to buildings, transportation systems, and other portions of the infrastructure, has been estimated betweed 13 trillion and 20 trillion (U.S. $147 billion and U.S. $200 billion). This earthquake was the worst to hit Japan since the 1923 Tokyo-Yokohama earthquake, which had an estimated Richter magnitude of 7.9 and resulted in nearly 143,000 deaths, primarily due to fire. The last Japanese earthquake to kill more than 1,000 people was the Fukui earthquake in 1948.