At first, it was thought to be of unknown cause and be a divine punishment a natural disaster, but there were many damages of public facilities such as shoso (public repository) or provincial monasteries of kokuga (provincial government offices) or gunga (provincial office), and in order to prevent financial damages of shozei (the rice tax stored in provincial offices' warehouse) and kanmotsu by destruction in a fire, the risk management by kokushi (provincial governors) and gunji (district managers) were pursued and sometimes they were discharged, recompensed the damages and so on.
当初は原因不明で、神罰や天災であるとの認識であったが、国衙や郡衙の正倉や国分寺などの公的施設の被害が多かったことと、正税・官物の焼失による財政的打撃を食い止めるために、国司・郡司らの管理責任を追及し、時には解官・損失補填などの措置を採る様になる。