Do you know? Earthquake and fire countermeasures in Yokohama

The first step in considering earthquake and fire countermeasures is to know the risks in the area where you live and to take measures that you can do at home and in the community.
The leaflet on earthquake fire countermeasures briefly summarizes risks and countermeasures. You can download the leaflet here, so please take a look.
In addition, there are various subsidy systems in Yokohama City that lead to earthquake fire countermeasures. For more information, see the documentation.

Leaflet for earthquake fire countermeasures

<Content>

• List of areas where there is a high risk of earthquake fire due to densely populated old buildings
• There are many old buildings, narrow roads, dense.…In such areas, attention should be paid to earthquake fires
• 4 measures that can be taken at home or in the community (with a subsidy system)
  • Check the evacuation route. Think of multiple routes from home to nearby evacuation sites.
  • Measures against electric fires by installing seismic breakers, etc. More than 60% of the fires caused by earthquake fires are electricity. Prevention by a seismic breaker is effective.
  • Demolition and rebuilding of old buildings. Old buildings are not only at risk of building collapse, but can also cause fires and burns.
  • Installation and training of initial-stage fire-fighting techniques. equipment. Promote the installation of equipment and participate in the local disaster drill.

Easy-to-understand, earthquake fire countermeasure leaflet (PDF: 1,681KB)

Through the project of the Health and Social Welfare Bureau Disability Measures Promotion Section, the leaflet for earthquake and fire countermeasures has been reconstructed to make it easier for people with intellectual disabilities to understand. In addition, it is an easy-to-understand language for foreigners (those who have started learning Japanese, who do not speak Japanese as their native language) and small children.

In places where buildings are dense, what happens when an earthquake occurs? 。 After a little thrilling development, I will introduce what you can do at home.

A cute character will give a quiz for an earthquake fire. Do you know?

※The nickname of the mascot character was decided by a popular vote at the 2024 Naka Ward and Nishi Ward inhabitants festival. The total number of applications is about 600!

In the fall of 2024, we explained the dangers of earthquake fires and countermeasures at the inhabitants' festival in four wards of the city (Nishi Ward, Naka Ward, Isogo Ward and Kanagawa Ward). In order to convey the damage caused by the fire spread in an easy-to-understand manner, Nishi Ward and Naka Ward used tools to superimpose the spread of the fire in each region, and many visitors said, "The explanation using the diorama was very interesting" and "I felt the risk of an earthquake fire close to me."

In 2024, we conducted on-site classes on disaster-prevention community development at Tateno Elementary School in Naka Ward and Higashi Elementary School in Nishi Ward to inform children of the dangers of earthquake fires and measures they could take on their own. After class, children responded, "I've heard about an earthquake fire, but I didn't know that there was danger around my elementary school," and "I want to find more measures I can do on my own." There was a response!

GIS Diorama is a workshop tool that combines cardboard diorama and FabGIS. The corrugated cardboard diorama is a tailor-made diorama kit that can be easily assembled by children by stacking parts cut along contour lines like a puzzle. FabGIS is a projection mapping of various data (such as the age of the building, the size of the road, and the spread of fire spread) by correcting the distortion due to altitude on topographic models.
Even if the government wants to think about disaster prevention town development in dense urban areas, many people think that it has nothing to do with themselves. On the other hand, if you look at the diorama of the place where you live, everyone naturally talks about it. Diorama enables easy-to-understand communication of the city and the risk of earthquake fires.
In this section, in order to create opportunities to think about disaster prevention town development, we produce GIS diorama in dense urban areas and demonstrate them at local events.

• Produced GIS Diorama: Honmoku, Negishi, Karasawa and Hiraku districts (priority areas of Naka Ward and Minami Ward)