Greater effort will be made to recall a humidifier model manufactured by TDK Corp. that is suspected of causing a fatal fire, government sources said Monday.
The Consumer Affairs Agency is cooperating with other government agencies to accelerate such efforts, they said.
The major electronic parts manufacturer said last Friday that the humidifier subject to the recall, model KS-500H, might have caused a Feb. 8 fire that killed four elderly women at a Nagasaki nursing home.
The KS-500H went on sale in 1998. A heater inside the humidifier could come loose and touch another component, causing fire or smoke, TDK said.
Before the Nagasaki fire, the KS-500H was connected to 46 accidents, including 16 cases of burn damage.