Two months have passed since five people in their 70s and 80s were killed in a fire at a Nagasaki City group home for people suffering from senile dementia. The fire on the night of Feb. 8 underlined not only the inadequacy of regulations for installation of sprinklers at such facilities but also problems related to defective products.
It surfaced that a humidifier used at the Nagasaki facility is likely to have started the fire. Electronic parts maker TDK Corp.announced Feb. 22 that "there is an extremely strong possibility" that its KS-500H humidifier caused the fatal fire.
The company started selling the humidifier in September 1998, and told the then Ministry of International Trade and Industry in January 1999 that it had begun a recall of the product and that it had stopped its production and sale. Although the company's recall remains in effect, it has so far received only about 5,500 units — roughly a quarter of the units it sold.