An old kotatsu could have killed us

Every year various television channels report on the perils of old kotatsu. Even when they are turned off, if they are plugged in they can catch fire. Every time a report about the risk of fire with old kotatsu came on TV, I didn't pay much attention, because I subconsciously thought: that'll never be us. But then one day it was. A Sunday, just a few weeks ago. Honestly the trauma of it is still raw, so I won't go into much detail, but I do want to post this to raise awareness. 

My mother-in-law gave my husband her old kotatsu table at the start of this winter. Honestly, I didn't want it, but sometimes you compromise in a relationship! Its a kotatsu table that can be used with chairs, so its waist height. Its only about ten years old. We had it plugged in, but on that day it wasn't turned on, because it was warm enough in the room with just the air conditioning set to heating.

Around 10.30 am I could smell something burning. I literally walked around the first floor of the house looking for something on fire. My husband was sitting right at the kotatsu table, but he couldn't smell it yet. He assumed it was someone burning the fields outside. (Something very common in Japan). But a few seconds later he could see smoke in our living room. So he also started looking for the source too. Not knowing it was right under his nose!

Because it was relatively warm, he didn't have his feet under the blankets. Nobody did at the time. But then one of my daughters came in from another room and was feeling a little chill so you put her feet under the kotatsu blankets. She pulled them out instantly and said "hot" in English and "itai" in Japanese. I looked at her feet and they were black. But my brain still couldn't compute what had happened. Thankfully it clicked with my husband and he pulled up the blankets and there was a full fledged fire under the table. It was about two feet wide and one foot high. 

Her feet were black because she had touched off the control panel on the electrical cord for the kotatsu. It was the control panel that had started the fire. Supposedly what happens is the element in the panel shorts.  It caused the control panel on the cord to catch fire and then it spread pretty quickly. The scariest part is it doesn't have to be turned on for that to happen. Once its plugged in there is a risk.

We were really lucky. Had the fire started the same time the previous day, two of my children were home alone. I dread to think. Had it happened two hours earlier, we were all still in bed and the whole house could have gone up in flames. It really could have killed us. If there is a lesson to be learned from this: when you are not using your kotatsu, plug it out.