Photo/Illutration Eiichi Toyama, president of Nippon Dry-Chemical Co., explains about the Quick Splasher fire suppression unit on July 14 in Tokyo’s Kita Ward. (Taira Goto)

While a nation reeled in shock and grief at a deadly arson attack on Kyoto Animation Co. in 2019, Eiichi Toyama took action, deciding to create a product to prevent further such tragedies. 

Toyama, 71, the president of Nippon Dry-Chemical Co., a fire extinguisher maker, became intent on creating an agent sprayer to prevent gasoline from catching fire.

“Fires from gasolines and other such substances cannot be put out with sprinklers,” Toyama recalled thinking. “This is an issue to which we, as an extinguisher maker, must consider how to respond.”

The development was proposed by Toyama in response to the arson attack on July 18, 2019, which left 36 people dead at a Kyoto Animation studio building after flames spread from the gasoline that was spread about. 

“I want our product to be accepted as widely as security cameras are in case of unexpected events,” said Toyama. “I anticipate it will serve as a deterrence to arson as well.”

The fire suppressor is being introduced at security companies and other establishments where gasoline is handled.

Based in Tokyo’s Kita Ward, Nippon Dry-Chemical started selling the Quick Splasher in July last year.

The sprayer, created based on a fire extinguisher’s container, can reportedly release 2.5 liters of a special agent through two nozzles to cover 10 square meters in 1.8 seconds.

The agent comprises chemicals to stop gasoline and other substances from evaporating. If it is sprayed promptly after the fuel is splashed on the floor, it would reportedly be nearly impossible for the liquid to be ignited.

Even after a blaze breaks out, the Quick Splasher is touted as being able to dramatically weaken the flames.

Though it was unknown whether there was a demand in the market for the Quick Splasher, Toyama said the company’s staff members believed “we should develop it” and were agreeable to the project.

In the Kyoto Animation attack, the culprit is said to have suddenly doused some of the staffers with gasoline and ignited the blaze with a lighter. The fiery blast, blaze and smoke are believed to have enveloped the entire building in an instant.

With that in mind, the new product is not aimed at extinguishing a blaze. It focuses on two points: stopping the fire from breaking out and containing the flames when ignition cannot be prevented.

To address the situation before a fire occurs, Toyama ordered employees to design the Quick Splasher in a way that “all the agent can be sprayed out within two seconds.”

As Nippon Dry-Chemical had been involved in the development of another product to instantly rein in fire in a double-decker bus’s engine before the attack, technologies accumulated in the process were taken advantage of.

Following repeated experiments, the Quick Splasher was completed, which comes in an aluminum cylinder and weighs 5 kilograms. The standard version carries a price tag of 36,300 yen ($330) after tax.

When the Quick Splasher was put on sale, inquiries came in from not only security firms but also gas station operators.

Nippon Dry-Chemical is making a smaller unit to be mounted on automobiles likewise, though Toyama emphasized that the Quick Splasher’s main objective is dealing with events such as the Kyoto Animation attack.

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