100 Stories2022 Leona Fire Incident

At around 5:15 p.m. on March 12, 2002, fire broke out in the Asahi Kasei Leona™ Plant in Nobeoka. The plant had an area of 43,000 m² and approximately 600 workers. With such a large scale, this incident was covered by the news on television.

The fire trucks arrived at the scene less than 30 minutes after the fire was confirmed. A crowd of media gathered at almost the same time, and the incident was broadcast on the news nationwide by 06:00 p.m. When the crisis arise, it is important for the company to take care of the situation while communicating with the local residents, the media, and all its stakeholders.

At 7:11 p.m., about two hours after the fire broke out, a fire evacuation alert was announced, targeting 3,700 households—9,400 people. Some residents refused to evacuate. In the interviews that were broadcasted by the NHK at the time, they answered, “We believe in Asahi Kasei, so it will be okay.” This showed the trust of the local residents. The company acted promptly. At 8 p.m., the first press conference took place at the Leona Plant. In the second press conference at 1 a.m. on the 13 the next day, President Kazumoto Yamamoto’s apology letter was distributed.

The fire was finally out 20 minutes past 2 a.m. on the 13th—9 hours after the fire broke out—and the evacuation alert was lifted at 2:40 a.m. At the third press conference that was held at 7 a.m., details about the fire, evacuation situation, and the plant blueprints were distributed, revealing the damage done. 15,000 m² burned down along with most of the textile manufacturing facilities, but fortunately, none of the workers were injured.

At 11 a.m. that day, Yamamoto got on the plane to Nobeoka first thing in the morning and held a press conference. He attended the conference in his work clothes as the head of the Emergency Task Force. Three hours after the president’s conference that was held at an exceptional speed, the fire was announced to be extinguished and the path to restoration had started.

At the press conference that was held three months later in May at the Nobeoka branch, Yamamoto announced that the nylon fiber facilities at the Leona™ Plant will be restored before October 2003. The company invested 12 billion yen to build facilities that produce 32,000 tons annually—almost the same scale as before the fire. However, they did not invest in building apparel manufacturing facilities, which had low sales volume. They instead opted for receiving supply from OEMs and selling them.

The president of the apparel company, Tadashi Sasaki expresses his thoughts at the time of the fire saying, “I went near the scene on the day of the fire. Looking at the situation, I instinctively thought to myself that restoration was impossible. My objective opinion was that it would restoration would cost more than 10 billion yen, so it was no use.”

Even in this situation, Asahi Kasei decided to restore the damage. “The restoration requires a large investment, but we have come to this decision after considering our responsibility to supply our customers and provide jobs to our workers,” stated Yamamoto at the press conference.

During the Leona fire incident, the company acted promptly, holding four press conferences until the fire was announced to be extinguished to apologize and provide an explanation. What supported this initial response was communication inside the company and with our stakeholders. This was an example that demonstrates how we handle accidents. We decided to restore the damage after considering how significantly this would impact the users and workers—the local economy—by narrowing the scope of our business and reducing costs to set achievable goals.