火事
かじ · kaji · JLPT N4 · noun
fire
🔥 火事 = fire + incident: a fire that is an event, not a flame
火 (fire) + 事 (matter, incident) = a fire as an accident, like a house fire. Plain 火 (ひ) is just flame. The reading かじ uses the Chinese-derived sounds: か for 火, じ for 事 (as in 用事, errand).
火 — pictograph of flames rising
火 is a pictograph showing flames rising upward from a fire, with the central stroke as the main blaze and the side strokes as sparks. The ancient oracle bone form looked even more clearly like a burning flame. It still means 'fire' today and serves as a common radical in characters related to heat, burning, or cooking.
事 — hand 又 holding a banner/tablet on a pole
Originally a pictograph of a hand (又) grasping a pole or ceremonial banner used by an official, depicting the act of conducting court business. From this it came to mean 'affair, matter, business, service.' It shares an ancient origin with 史 (scribe) and 吏 (official).