A teacher in her 40s told investigators she had used air circulators to dry laundry in the room where a fire is believed to have started at a Tokyo elementary school before the blaze broke out last week, Tokyo police said Wednesday.
The Metropolitan Police Department is investigating the incident as a possible accidental fire after investigators found a fiber fragment attached to an electric heater in the storage room next to a music classroom.
It was not immediately clear how the teacher’s use of the air circulators was related to investigators’ findings involving the electric heater or whether either may have contributed to the fire.
The teacher expressed regret over her actions, investigators said. Multiple burned clothes and hangers were found in the storage room after the fire.
According to the police, the fire broke out at around 11 a.m. Friday at the school in Tokyo’s Kita Ward, while 24 fifth graders were attending the teacher’s class in an adjacent music room.
The police said they found signs of a short circuit on the heater’s power cord, but no evidence of an electrical leak.
A total of 11 people, including pupils, were taken to the hospital, with the teacher and one student suffering fractures.
The fire was extinguished about three hours after it started.
© KYODO
