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The story
On the morning of the 5th, a commotion broke out at a gas station in Onojo City, Fukuoka Prefecture, when a 4-ton truck slowly drove onto the premises with white smoke rising from its cargo bed. An employee reportedly called the fire department, saying “the truck came in with its cargo bed on fire.” On the thread, many voiced shock, saying “of all places, it drove into a spot where open flames are strictly forbidden,” while others defended the move, arguing “this is the only place around with equipment to handle it” — sparking a debate over just where a truck with a fire onboard should actually flee to. A similar past case — a sweet-potato vending truck reportedly driving into a fire station — was also cited, and opinions were divided over just how much firefighting equipment gas stations actually have on hand.
This morning in Onojo City, Fukuoka Prefecture, there was a commotion when a smoking truck drove onto the grounds of a gas station.
A single truck, driving slowly while white smoke poured from its cargo bed.
At around 9:30 this morning, in the Kamiohori area of Onojo City, Fukuoka Prefecture, an employee at the gas station called the fire department, saying “a 4-ton truck came in with its cargo bed on fire.”
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Could've been a huge disaster if things had gone wrong
Is this the 'earthquake, lightning, fire, father' thing? (an old saying ranking the scariest things in life)
The tanuki from the 'Kachikachi Mountain' folktale (the raccoon dog who gets set on fire on its own back)
There's no real 'equipment to deal with it'
Just a few tiny fire extinguishers
Even in a fire, the firewalls stop it from spreading to the neighbors
Like a cigarette tossed from an oncoming car landing in the truck bed and starting a fire
Feel like that's happened before
There's no car wash big enough to fit a 4-ton truck
Fire stations do face the street, but the garage's usually packed with fire trucks and ambulances
How are you even supposed to drive in? (´・ω・｀)
Reminds me of that sweet-potato vending truck that drove into a fire station while on fire
Drive the whole car into a river, obviously
Just pull over on the roadside immediately
Come to think of it, wasn't there a truck whose cargo bed caught fire that drove into a fire station
A sweet-potato vendor, right?
It's not like fire stations are on every corner
That was this year, right?
Feel like it was this spring
Saw it on Miyane's evening show (a well-known Japanese TV news program)
👺 Dive into a pool
That's exactly why they even install those static-electricity discharge pads for your hands…
By the way, do fire engines always have their tanks full of water?
Is there always a hydrant right there too?
Because gas stations are always required to keep fire extinguishers on hand
If they only started filling the tank after getting the call, there's no way it'd be in time
Background and key points of this discussion
Gas stations are strict no-open-flame zones, yet under Japan’s Fire Service Act, fueling stations are only required to keep a handful of small (Type 5) fire extinguishers on site — they’re not equipped with water tanks or high-pressure hose systems capable of handling a large vehicle fire. Two views floated in the thread — that “gas stations are safe because of their firewalls” and that “all they really have is a few fire extinguishers, which is unnerving” — both hold a grain of truth. The firewalls are designed to stop flames from spreading to neighboring buildings, not to extinguish a burning vehicle itself, which is likely why, in this case, calling the fire department and evacuating took priority over trying to put the fire out on the spot. Commenters repeatedly brought up a past, similar-sounding episode of a “sweet-potato truck driving into a fire station,” but the details are based on people’s memories and haven’t been verified with a specific date or location. Likewise, what actually caused the smoke (a discarded cigarette, the cargo itself catching fire, etc.) hadn’t been confirmed in the original news report at the time of writing, so that explanation should be treated as thread speculation rather than fact.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (News Express+) thread “[Fukuoka] ‘We saw smoke, so it drove into the gas station’ — Smoking truck barges in.”
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