Fire Tornadoes

Overview

The Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 was one of the worst disasters in Japanese history. A magnitude 7.9 earthquake centered in the western part of Kanagawa Prefecture caused buildings to collapse, landslides to occur, and a tsunami to hit the coastal areas. However, most of the victims did not die in these disasters; the main cause of death was fire. In one open space in Tokyo, almost all of the nearly 40,000 evacuees who had gathered there died in a fire. Yet this was not just any fire, but rather a fire whirl, or what is more commonly known as a "fire tornado."