Going for a Friday afternoon visit to the local shopping center I was visiting the electronics store.

Funny enough I did not buy anything today, but looking around I smelled – what was that – like burned plastic – inside the shop.

I did not think more about it and left the building, but sure enough, when exiting I saw a chain of police and security guards, and everyone was redirected to the side of the exit.

Looking up above the exit I saw the reason for the redirection :

As you can see this was very limited, but unchecked it might have spread to the rest of the building. The burned plastic smell was quite evident out there – probably from the neon sign you see burning.

Quite soon the Fire Brigade arrived, and in seconds the fire was extinguished :

I have a guess as to the reason for the fire. Most probably a short circuit or some electric arcing in or near the neon sign you see on the pictures.

Nothing dramatic as the things we have seen from Japan the last week, and people just standing looking at the incident.

This is one of those days I am happy that I always carry a decent camera – not just a camera phone.