March 11 marked six full years since the Great East Japan Earthquake. Ahead of that date Palaceside Building held a “combined fire drill” on the 10th. The Joint Fire Prevention and Disaster Management Council, organized by all tenants, holds it each year around the spring and autumn National Fire Prevention Campaigns. This time 345 people took part.
At 2:30 p.m. a magnitude-6-upper tremor was assumed to have struck the capital. On the in-building announcement “Drill — earthquake,” the exercise began. People took cover under desks; then “fire in a fourth-floor east office,” the disaster-prevention center attempted first extinguishing with extinguishers but the fire spread, and at 2:37 an evacuation advisory went out. From the first basement through the ninth floor, shops and offices actually descended to the first floor by emergency stairs.
After that everyone gathered on the roof for the usual hands-on training. Besides first extinguishing with water-filled extinguishers (photo above), participants chose from a full menu: indoor hydrant hose work, CPR with an AED (photo below, foreground), a smoke-experience house (harmless smoke filling a tent to walk through) (photo below, yellow sheet at left rear), a shake truck (a magnitude-7 experience machine), and more.
Tokyo’s high that day reached 14.8°C; there was a slightly northerly wind, but it was fairly warm for the season, and everyone worked with energy. Thank you very much.
