FUKUSHIMA -- The bodies of seven people were recovered from the site of a fire that destroyed a two-story house and storage facility in Ono, Fukushima Prefecture. A neighbor alerted police at about 11:05 p.m. Wednesday that the home of Tsuneyoshi Shiota, 61, had caught fire. The blaze was extinguished about an hour later.
According to Tamura Police Station, nine members of a family spanning four generations lived in the house, which was partly built of wood. Shiota's wife, 57, suffered minor injuries to both of her hands as she fled, while the 33-year-old husband of his eldest daughter was unharmed as he was away at work. The police have been unable to contact the seven other residents, including Shiota's four young grandchildren. The police are confirming the identities of the bodies, believed to be those of the missing family members, and are investigating the cause of the fire.
Along with Shiota, police have been unable to contact his mother, 81; his eldest daughter, 30; his granddaughter, 4; and his three grandsons, aged 3, 6 and 8.
According to several neighbors, Shiota had bad legs. His wife asked the neighbors for help, and reportedly said she noticed the fire while giving her husband a bath.
"The flames were so big that they burned the upper part of the forest behind his house. We couldn't do anything," recalled a 64-year-old relative of Shiota, who lives nearby and rushed to the scene of the fire. "They're a good family, and you could always hear the voices of the children. This is as tragic as it gets."
The property is about 2 kilometers north of the Ban-etsu Expressway's Ono interchange, and is located in the countryside.
Forty fire engines were dispatched to extinguish the blaze.
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