Fireworks were in the sky where huge flames were on the 11th of March

I'm living on the 11th floor of a condo in a town where it takes about half an hour from Tokyo Station by train. Fortunately, in front of my condo, there is nothing to block my view from my living room. The view isn't wonderful, but I still enjoy it. The day before yesterday, I saw fireworks going off in the distant sky from my living room. As soon as I saw them, I noticed that the fireworks were rising from a baseball field. For the past few years, fireworks have sometimes been set off there when the bottom of the fifth inning was over. At the same time, the fireworks surprised me, partly because there are more baseball "day" games this season in order to cut electricity consumption, and partly because many events have been canceled in the past two months. Actually, on the 11the of March, I saw huge flames in that sky from my living room, and I was glad because the fireworks made me feel that things are getting back to normal little by little.

On that day, I felt a small shake at home around a quarter to three in the afternoon. I assumed that it would stop soon. However, I felt something unusual, and then I went to check for sure whether or not the gas main had been turned off already. Although I felt that at least a minute already went by, there was still no sign that the quake was going to stop. On the contrary, it became stronger and stronger, and then ended up becoming so strong that all I was able to do was stand in a narrow hallway while steadying myself by pushing against both sides of walls with my hands. I was thinking that the time to come was now. I was upset not only by how powerful the earthquake was but also how long it lasted. On top of that, loud clashes, clatters and noises at home fueled fear.

http://www.asahi.com/special/10005
/TKY201103110577.html

About half an hour after the massive earthquake hit my house, I felt another huge quake again. This made me realize that I had to prepare myself for any situation. The M 7.7 aftershock was smaller than the M 9 first quake, but the epicenter of the aftershock was much closer to my city than that of the first one, so I felt that the aftershock was even stronger. When it was getting dark, I noticed that my living room wasn't as dark as usual despite me not having turned on a light. Then, I discovered huge flames in the distant sky. It turned out that the massive earthquake had caused an oil refinery inferno. The refinery was far from my house. Still I was able to see the flames rising from it from my living room.

A few weeks after the earthquake, it was reported that tall buildings in the Tokyo area had shaken for longer time due to sympathetic vibration despite them being very far from the epicenter.

The pictures of the big flames are in the link below.
http://www.asahi.com/special/10005/TKY201103110577.html