The ruins of a house gutted by fire in Nanto, Toyama Prefecture, are seen in this TV image.

6 die, 4 injured in Toyama fire; 10 perish in other fires across Japan

Thursday 01st January, 03:33 AM JST

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smithinjapan at 03:57 PM JST - 1st January

Horrible horrible story.... I'll be happy when Japanese people stop using antique gas/oil heaters to keep their house warm and start building REAL houses with a bit of insulation. Not likely to happen soon, and in the meantime may these people rest in peace.
CaptDingleheimer at 11:10 PM JST - 1st January

Whenever there's a house fire in Japan, people die. The reasons include what smith mentioned above, as well as the fact that they generally don't use smoke detectors. Furthermore, firefighter training in Japan puts a heavy emphasis on marching, standing at attention, and trying to 'look like a firefighter', with much less effort put towards actual firefighting techniques. Combined with shoddy construction, you get a deadly tinderbox.
zaichik at 02:49 AM JST - 2nd January

Furthermore, firefighter training in Japan puts a heavy emphasis on marching, standing at attention, and trying to 'look like a firefighter', with much less effort put towards actual firefighting techniques

You missed out the regular "konshinkai" drinking parties that seem to be the raison d'etre of the volunteer "shouboudan" fire brigades. My ex-husband was in one of those and thought it was so pointless. He agreed to be the leader of his local brigade, thinking he could change things, but it turned out that the other members quite liked the system as it was.