Having spent the majority of my life glued to a screen of some kind, there aren’t many things on the internet that truly surprise me anymore. But every so often, something strange enough gets caught on camera that I can’t help but scroll back up, watch it a dozen more times, and come out even more confused than when I started.
That’s exactly what happened when my colleague Antti shared a video of a sweet potato vendor truck speeding through Japanese city streets fully engulfed in flames, leaving plumes of smoke and smoldering debris in its wake. Apparently, a fire broke out from within the truck, but instead of calling the fire department and waiting until they arrived, the driver simply took the fire directly to the station.
According to Japanese-language news site Livedoor.com, Kumamoto City police were bombarded with calls on Thursday night about a vehicle speeding down the road while being ravaged by flames. For some context, “119” is the number you dial for medical and fire emergencies in Japan. From the report:
At around 9:50 p.m. on the 12th, multiple 119 emergency calls were received reporting that “a car is driving while on fire” in Chuo Ward, Kumamoto City.
According to the fire department, the fire started in a truck used for selling roasted sweet potatoes, driven by a man in his 70s. The fire was extinguished about an hour later, but one truck was completely destroyed.
No one was injured.
According to Livedoor, the man later told police that he noticed smoke coming from the back of the truck as he was moving along. Instead of pulling over to investigate, he immediately changed course, going from somewhere in Kumamoto City center to a fire station in the Chuo ward. Video from Japanese news outlet FNN shows the fiery debris left on the road by the truck as it traveled to the station. The video also includes an animation of the truck engulfed in flames, which I found to be particularly entertaining:
NTV.co.jp claims the driver drove roughly two kilometers (1.2 miles) using National Route 3, among other roads, to get to the fire station. Going by Google Maps, Route 3 looks to be a major artery roadway that runs north to south through the densest part of the city. Because fire-laden food trucks aren’t exactly common in Japan (or anywhere), onlookers were rightfully shocked by the situation, and a lot of them took out their phones to record.
The highest-quality clip I’ve seen is this one below, which shows the truck blasting through a red light, fully engulfed by flames that look five to six feet tall and spewing smoke as it drove past. Going by the audio, it seems like it was also playing some sort of music from its speakers:
Biggest story in Japan right now is this mobile roasted sweet potato truck catching on fire, blasting full speed through red lights and driving right up to the fire station.
These sometimes drive thru my hood, albeit in less gaudy trucks.pic.twitter.com/Q6i8ksX8ki— eric ゑリｯ久 (@shinobu_books) March 13, 2026
Then there’s this clip from a nearby security camera, which captured the truck turning onto a main roadway:
Sweet potato truck goes up in flames in Kumamoto
The driver of a sweet potato truck managed to escape unhurt after his vehicle turned into a fireball on the streets of Kumamoto City on Thursday night.
More news from NHK WORLD: https://t.co/bZpiKm94yl pic.twitter.com/maP6Ujjh1D
— NHK WORLD News (@NHKWORLD_News) March 13, 2026
Then there’s my personal favorite, this video from a newsroom’s view of the Kumamoto City skyline, which managed to catch a glimpse of the truck driving on Route 3, simply because the fire was that bright:
???????? BURNING FOOD TRUCK
On the night of the 12th, in Kumamoto City, a truck selling baked sweet potatoes drove about 2 kilometers while making a fire and rushed to the fire station. No one was injured.
According to the fire department, what burned was a truck for the sale of… https://t.co/FWci66GJqA pic.twitter.com/tv73fkv2Pv
— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) March 13, 2026
While I can understand the driver’s desire to extinguish the fire as quickly as possible—especially if the truck was connected to their livelihood—perhaps driving an actively burning food truck through city streets was not the smartest way to approach the situation. Not only is the truck essentially a rolling fireball, but it was leaving flame-covered chunks of itself (and possibly delicious roasted sweet potato) on the street, which could’ve damaged other vehicles:
FNNプライムオンライン
The worst part? The driver’s efforts were in vain. While the firefighters were immediately able to spring into action and extinguish the flames because the fire had arrived at their doorstep, it was already too late for the truck, which had mostly burned to a crisp, aside from its metal frame.
【通報】焼き芋の移動販売トラックから出火、そのまま消防署へ駆け込み消火活動 熊本https://t.co/zsxxODRRZ8
「車が燃えながら走行している」と、複数の通報があった。消防によると、70代の男性が運転するトラックから火が出て、約1時間後に消し止められたが、全焼。男性にけがはなかった。 pic.twitter.com/5B4Vgr7Uj5
— ライブドアニュース (@livedoornews) March 13, 2026
Take this as a lesson: If you smell something burning or if you see smoke, don’t keep driving. Pull over and investigate. It could save you from injury or getting yourself into further trouble. Oh, and always be sure to have a fire extinguisher onboard.
Top graphic images: YouTube / FNNプライムオンライン and X / shinobu_books
I seriously doubt that any fire extinguisher likely to be carried on a non-FD vehicle would have made much difference if deployed. I have seen stories where something starts a fire in the compacted trash compartment on garbage trucks and the driver finds some wide spot on the road and ejects the contents in a pile that the FD responds to and extinguishes. It’s messy. It’s smelly. But at the least the truck doesn’t end up as a frame-up restore (or worse).
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This is exactly the kind of thing I would love to do in a video game and would never want to try in real life.
Is Kumamoto the Jacksonville of Japan?
Shame on Kumamoto’s city council for not setting a bunch of sweet ramps to jump off along the way.
Wouldn’t Torch have been a better author for this article?
I am confused by the repeated reference to “food truck”. Was it a truck that prepared sweet potato delicacies at job sites and special events?
Or was it just hauling spuds?
In Japan, trucks like this drive around selling roasted sweet potatoes with speakers announcing their presence, kind of like Ice Cream Trucks in America.
Extra crispy, in this case!
“Hold my Peroni.”
-Ferrari owners
Moretti works too xD
This story made me sad. And hungry.