Amid questions about whether a train fire in central Tokyo on Sunday could have been avoided, police on Monday were investigating how fire spread to an Odakyu Line train after it came to an emergency stop precariously close to a burning building alongside the tracks.
No one was hurt by the train fire between Sangubashi and Yoyogi-Hachiman stations on the Odawara Line in Shibuya Ward. Some 300 Odakyu Electric Railway Co. passengers were forced to evacuate and about 71,000 people were affected by the delays.
Some experts said the railway, police and firefighters botched their communications and should have told the driver about the fire before he even got near it, and that the train's close proximity to the building might have been a significant factor.