The Kōriyama explosion occurred on 30 July 2020 at 8:57 a.m.

Japan Standard Time , or , is the standard time zone in Japan, 9 hours ahead of UTC (UTC+09:00). Japan does not observe daylight saving time, though its introduction has been debated on several occasions. During World War II, the time zone was often referred to a ...

, when a gas explosion destroyed an On-Yasai, a '' shabu-shabu'' restaurant located along in the city of

Kōriyama is a city in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 321,938 people in 141760 households, and a population density of 425 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Kōriyama is designated as a core city and ...

Fukushima Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Fukushima Prefecture has a population of 1,771,100 () and has a geographic area of . Fukushima Prefecture borders Miyagi Prefecture and Yamagata Prefecture ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. The blast resulted in the death of a person and the wounding of 19 other people. The restaurant was being remodeled at the time of its destruction. The man who was killed in the blast was part of the crew who was renovating the restaurant, though he was the only worker present at the time of the incident. An Ikinari Steak restaurant and a bank within the vicinity of the restaurant were also damaged. Four of the bank's occupants were among the injured. Damage caused by the blast was reported up to away from its epicenter at the ''shabu-shabu'' restaurant.

Investigation

The cause of the gas explosion is currently being investigated by authorities, though it is suspected to have been caused by the failure of several propane cylinders. The company carrying out the renovation work at the time of the explosion claimed their work did not involve the gas cylinders. However, the renovation did include the rushed installation of an induction stove near the restaurant's gas stove on the day prior to the blast. Fukushima Prefectural Police suspect that gas was leaking from the cylinders throughout the night prior to the blast, filling the building with their contents. This theory is backed up by reports from nearby residents who said they had smelled gas in the area the day before the explosion. When the renovation worker entered the premises and turned on the power to the building, the gas was ignited. The restaurant's gas supplier informed the police on 5 August that they had noticed corrosion on the restaurant's gas pipes in June. The restaurant's owners claimed they had not acted on the information from the gas supplier because the store was closed to business.

References

{{reflist 2020 disasters in Japan Explosions in 2020 Disasters in Fukushima Prefecture Gas explosions in Japan July 2020 in Japan

Explosion An explosion is a rapid expansion in volume of a given amount of matter associated with an extreme outward release of energy, usually with the generation of high temperatures and release of high-pressure gases. Explosions may also be generated ...

Disasters in restaurants