On March 11, three years after the Great East Japan Earthquake, Palaceside Building held a comprehensive fire drill. The joint fire/disaster council of all tenants runs it each spring and autumn during national Fire Prevention Week—this year on the anniversary itself.
At 2:30 p.m. a major shake hit Tokyo; "training earthquake" announcements started the drill. Staff first sheltered under desks, then moved to secure exits—when a training fire broke out immediately. Each drill assigns a tenant as the simulated fire source; this time the 2F tenant. After initial extinguishing failed, an evacuation order at 2:35 p.m. sent shops and offices from B1 through 9F down emergency stairs; one stair near the fire was marked unusable.
Tenants evacuated to 1F, then gathered on the roof for hands-on training (photo above).
On the roof, led by the self-defense fire chief (Mainichi Building president), all observed one minute of silence for quake victims (main photo), then four stations: water-extinguisher practice with real spray; indoor hydrant hoses aimed at targets 10 m away (photo lower right upper); AED CPR, triangular bandages and blanket stretchers (photo lower right lower); and a smoke tent where each person crawled through harmless smoke (photo lower right center).
Sunny but windy and cold on the roof; about 550 people from 80 companies joined for an hour.