Four people in their 70s and 80s were killed and two other elderly people were critically injured in a fire at a group home for people suffering from senile dementia in Nagasaki City on the night of Feb. 8.
Unfortunately this is not the first time such a tragedy has taken place. Seven people were killed in a 2006 fire at a group home in Omura, Nagasaki Prefecture. A 2009 fire at a facility for elderly people in Shibukawa, Gunma Prefecture, killed 10 people and a 2010 fire at a group home in Sapporo killed seven others.
Fire prevention measures and staffing levels at these facilities are clearly inadequate. Both the central and local governments must take steps to quickly remedy this situation.