Teacher Explains about Drying Laundry over Elementary School Fire

Tokyo, June 24 (Jiji Press)--A teacher has said she was drying laundry in the music preparation room where a fire started last week in an elementary school in Tokyo's Kita Ward, police sources said Wednesday.

Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department is investigating a possible causal link between the teacher's explanation and the fire at Takinogawa Daisan Elementary School, which left 11 people injured, on suspicion of negligent fire-setting.

In a voluntary hearing on Tuesday, the teacher in her 40s said that she was drying laundry in the music preparation room on the fourth floor of the school, using circulators, the police said.

She asked whether children and other teachers are safe, showing how sorry she was, according to the police. The investigators will continue to hear from her as a person of interest.

In addition to a burnt electric heater and multiple circulators, a power strip with multiple outlets was found in the scene.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]