Japan- Suspected arson in downtown Osaka building leaves 24 dead, 17 December 2021

[dotr]

Suspected arson in downtown Osaka building leaves 24 dead

Firefighters and police officers investigate the scene of a deadly fire at an eight-story building in a major business, shopping and entertainment district in Osaka, western Japan, Friday, Dec. 17, 2021. Multiple people were feared dead after the fire broke out Friday in the building in Osaka, officials said, and police were investigating arson as a possible cause. (Yukie Nishizawa/Kyodo News via AP)

''OSAKA, Japan (AP) - A fire that spread from a fourth-floor mental clinic in an eight-story building in downtown Osaka in western Japan on Friday left 24 dead in what police were treating as a possible case of arson.

Media reports said police were searching for a man who witnesses saw carrying a paper bag from which an unidentified liquid was dripping. The man could have been among the 24 dead, reports said. Police declined to confirm those reports.

Fire officials who reached the building in the major business, shopping and entertainment area of Kitashinchi in Osaka found 27 people in a state of cardiac arrest, said Osaka fire department official Akira Kishimoto.

One woman was conscious and brought down by an aerial ladder from a window on the sixth floor and was being treated in a hospital, he said.

Later Friday, 24 people were pronounced dead, the fire department said. It said three others were resuscitated and are in serious conditions.

In Japan, the authorities customarily describe those without vital signs as being in “shinpai teishi” or a state of cardiac and pulmonary arrest, and do not confirm deaths until they are pronounced at hospitals and other necessary procedures are done.''

 

[dotr]

Japan: At least 27 feared dead in Osaka building fire
''A man who appeared to be in his 50s or 60s was seen carrying a bag of liquid into the building, before knocking it over near a heater, spilling the liquid and starting the fire, Kyodo News reported.

The man was rushed to hospital and is in a critical condition, NHK reported.

Emergency services were alerted shortly after 10:00 local time (01:00 GMT) on Friday.

"There was lots of dark smoke," one eyewitness told NHK, adding: "There was a very strong smell, too."

Another witness said she saw a woman in the building calling for help.

"When I looked outside I saw orange flames at the fourth-floor window," she told Kyodo News. "A woman was waving her hands for help from the sixth floor."

Some people were evacuated from the building by fire crews using ladders.

Image source, Reuters
Image caption,
The fire, which reportedly occurred in a psychiatric clinic, was extinguished within half an hour
The blaze was successfully extinguished within half an hour, after it burned across an area of approximately 20 sq m (215 sq ft), the local fire department said.

No damage has been reported to other floors within the building or any neighbouring properties.

Last year, Japan saw one of its worst mass casualty incidents since World War Two after a man set fire to a film studio in Kyoto in 2019, killing 36 people.''

 

[dotr]

Dec 30 2021
Suspect in fatal Japan clinic fire dies in hospital
''TOKYO (AP) — The suspect in a fire in Japan that killed 25 people has died at a hospital where he was being treated for burns and smoke inhalation, police said Friday.

Morio Tanimoto had been under investigation on suspicion of arson and murder in the Dec. 17 fire at a mental health clinic in Osaka in western Japan. He died Thursday.

Tanimoto, a clinic patient, was seen on security camera footage. He had bought a large amount of gasoline, and the incident drew comparisons to a 2019 arson attack on an animation studio in Kyoto that killed 36 people.''