On January 26, Cultural Property Fire Prevention Day, a fire drill was performed at Kiyomizu-dera Temple in Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto. Participants renewed their resolve to protect the World Heritage Site from fire while using a 1,500-cubic-meter water tank, one of the largest in Japan and installed in the temple precincts by Kyoto City, for the first time.

Cultural Property Fire Prevention Day was designated after wall paintings, which were National Treasures, were destroyed in a fire at the main hall of Horyuji Temple in Nara Prefecture in 1949. Every year at this time, a fire drill is performed at Kiyomizu-dera Temple, and on this day, it was held on the supposition that a fire had broken out on the south side of the temple's main hall.

Using fire extinguishers, water cannons and outdoor fire hydrants, Kiyomizu-dera Temple's troop of security guards extinguished a fire in its early stage, then they briskly carried out Buddhist statues prepared for the exercise which were likenesses of "Senjyu Kannon," or a thousand-armed kannon, and "Fujin Raujin," or the Wind and Thunder Gods.

Next, local fire fighters responding to the fire drill connected hoses to the underground water tank installed by the city approximately 200 meters south of the large balcony of the Kiyomizu-dera Temple's main hall, and used a pumper to spray the area with water. Higashiyama Fire Station staff also fought the fire with ladder trucks and pumpers.

With sprays of water and a rainbow arching over the balcony of the temple's main hall, visitors gazed raptly at the scene, taking photographs of the powerful fire drill.

Since 2006, Kyoto City has promoted the construction of earthquake-resistant water tanks and citizens' hydrants in order to enhance disaster prevention capabilities in the Kiyomizu area of Higashiyama Ward, where there is a concentration of cultural properties. The water tank, which is 41.8 meters high, 7.4 meters wide and 6.7 meters deep, had been under construction at Kiyomizu-dera Temple since last June.