This morning at 2am the main and only train station to Kyushu from Honshu was burned to the ground by a homeless 74 year old man after being told to move from the station's property. The station which I visit every morning to go to work was one of the more historic points of the city and was home to may stores and a Sega Hi-Tech Land. Everything is gone ! Japan rail still doesn't know what it's going to do but they better sort something out soon. Everyday 1000's of people used this station to travel from Honshu to Kyushu. from this page you can see the news report showing the station burning down. It really does go off !! 56kbps and 300kbps streams available. http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/videonews/nnn/20060107/20060107-00000005-nnn-soci.html Here's a picture of what it originally looked like And here it is now. I visited the site this afternoon since it's only 20 minutes from my home by car. It's hard to believe that it's gone. Hust looks so strange. Yakumo
Good lord, it is almost amazing that the chap managed to do it. But still my condolences, I always build up quite an affection for places I go everyday. I remember when the train line I used everyday in nishinomiya area derailed, it jolts you from your normal life. Guess there will be a round up of homeless people now...
Christ, was anyone hurt? Where my girlfriends father lives, some kids set a forest fire, and it burnt the entire mountain, (it's all wooden up there) and the fires just barely stopped before they reached the residential areas.
There were 35 night staff there but they escaped to the railway so the fires never caught them. They were very lucky indeed. Yakumo
Now the homeless guy won't be homeless anymore, hes gonna be living in a jail cell for quite some time, right? Glad no one got hurt, that fire looked to be very intense. That station went out like a house made out of hay! Wouldn't buildings like those have fire sprinklers built in them, as well as extinguishers, etc? Especially for a public works building such as a train station.
The building was quite old but I'm sure it must have had some sort of protection against fire but it doesn't look like it was enough. It could have been much worse if the wind was strong because next to that station is the main postoffice for the entire city and the main shopping centre as well !!! They were very lucky indeed that the wind wasn't blowing. Here's a list of what's gone thanks to the blaze. INSIDE - 2 convenient stores, Sega Hi-Tec Land, a bakery, 8 ATM machines, 5 shops, 2 restaurants, 1 travel agent, 500 year old samurai suit !! Japan's biggest plate ! That was massive!! OUTSIDE - KFC (no great loss there then :lol: ), Restaurant, Information Centre, Chemist (Drug Store), Office Block, main Bus station ticket centre. So as you can see, quite a major fire. The old guy will be in prison for life probably but saying that he'll be made up because now he'll be fed. Still, what a twat ! Live is going to be a bitch now going and coming home from work thanks to him. Yakumo
Dang, that's pretty crazy. I've read that the Japanese homeless population is kind of "undergound," not in your face like it's here in the state. Plus they don't seem to be full of filthy, insane people. But maybe not. Anyone who burns down a building like that has got to be crazy.
Holy shit! When the fuck has a station ever burned to the ground?\ Plenty of loony people, but they rarely fuck w/ anyone. In Tokyo, the homeless people only beg for change from the foreigners.... no joke.
Get this guys ! The Station will be in use from Tuesday !! How fast is that ! Go only knows how the hell we are going to get to the platform though. Yakumo
Have done. Took a few on Tuesday. They're on my phone at the moment so I'll have to put them to SD card so I can get them on to the PC. May do it later. Yakumo
I was watching NHK(don't ask me why ) and saw those fires. Since I couldn't understand a thing, I thought that it was some important building on fire.
well the only train station that links two major parts of Japan together is pretty important I guess. I can't believe how fast they got it operational ! The place still stinks of smoke but at least I can get to work Yakumo
How did they manage to get the station operating again? Did they just put up a temporary platform or what? I saw the video of this and couldn't believe it when you said that they were going to have it up and running so soon.
The platforms are made of stone so they didn't burn. Also the stairs that lead up to them are also made of stone (New escalators had to be put in though) so the actual platforms were fine. Only today did they get all the clocks on the platforms running again. I guess they were all controlled by one computer that went up in smoke. There was a really nasty funky smell today at the station. Probably some chemical crap they were using for one reason or another. Yakumo
