Four people died in fires that destroyed their residences in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, and Oamishirasato, Chiba Prefecture, on Friday morning.

Fire department officials in Kanagawa said that at 1 a.m., a passerby called 119 to report a house on fire in Kawasaki. By the time firefighters put out the blaze, the two-story detached house was destroyed, TV Asahi reported. Two persons died in the fire. Police said they were a 76-year-old woman and her 51-year-old son.

In the second fire, a 100-square-meter wooden house in Oamishirasato was destroyed by a fire that started about 5:30 a.m., firefighters said. Home owner Kazumi Hakkaku, 83, and his wife Yoko, 80, were found dead in the ruins, TV Asahi reported.