The fire I decided to write my essay on is The Great Hanshin Fire, also knows as The Kobe Earthquake. This was the second worst earthquake to hit Japan, the first was The Great Kanto Earthquake which took place in 1923. The Great Hanshin Earthquake took place along the fault lines of Japan in the Southern part of Hyogo. The earthquake happened at 5:46am and measured a 7.2 on the magnitude scale, taking everyone by surprise. Nobody knew it was gonna happen and since it was early in the morning it woke everyone up frightened and confused. It lasted about 20 seconds, but the ground still shifted 50 centimeters horizontally and 1 meter vertically. Many building, bridges, and roads had collapsed due to the earthquake. Most of the older buildings not only collapsed …show more content…
Mostly elderly people were affected by the huge event. About 80% of the deaths was caused by collapsing buildings and falling furniture, but 79% of the houses built were supposed to have been made to be “earthquake proof.” More than 1,000 survivors of the earthquake died due to the harsh conditions after the earthquake. One of the main causes of all of these disasters was due to the lack of the Japanese being prepared. Authorities in Kobe admitted on live television that they were unprepared for the earthquake because they thought that Kobe was earthquake proof. Them believing this lead them to not paying attention to ways to prepare for earthquakes, like earthquake drills. This also led them to not being able to fight fire very well using helicopters because they thought it would never be used. After the earthquake, buildings and roads were designed to be even more earthquake proof in Japan. It also became mandatory for schools and factories to have regular earthquake drills just in case another on strikes again, which did happen during The Great East Japan Earthquake in