Officials reported a fire broke out Friday in a building in Osaka, western Japan, killing more than 20 people, and police were investigating arson as a possible cause.
According to Osaka fire department official Akira Kishimoto, the fire erupted on the fourth level of an eight-story structure in Kitashinchi’s major commercial, shopping, and entertainment district.
Twenty-seven people were found with cardiac arrest, and one woman was hurt, according to Kishimoto. The woman was conscious and was being treated in a hospital after being lowered from a window on the sixth level using an aerial ladder.
According to NHK national television and other media, 19 persons were pronounced dead and three others were resuscitated later Friday. The Japanese government has refused to corroborate the reports.
In Japan, persons without vital signs are referred to as being in “shinpai teishi,” or cardiac and pulmonary arrest and deaths are not confirmed until they are declared at hospitals and other essential processes are completed.
Because several of the fatalities had few outward injuries, a doctor at one of the hospitals treating them believes they died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
“Many people have perished or are in a state of heart and lung failure,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno stated, without specifying the precise number. Hirofumi Yoshimura, the governor of Osaka, expressed his sympathy.
An internal medicine clinic, an English language school, and other companies are housed in the building. According to fire department sources, several of the victims were visitors to the clinic on the fourth level.
The cause of the fire as well as other data were unknown at the time. Police in Osaka said they were looking into whether the fire was started intentionally or by accident.
According to accounts in the media, police were looking for a man who was seen carrying a paper bag with an unknown liquid flowing from it. The reports were not confirmed by the police.
According to NHK, the man was seen by a female outpatient at the clinic’s reception desk, and the fire started shortly after he placed the leaky bag on the floor.
According to Kishimoto, those on other stories of the building were reported to have been safely evacuated.
A witness told NHK that she heard a woman’s voice pleading for rescue from the fourth floor. Another witness told TV Asahi that when he came outside after hearing a loud noise, he observed flames and smoke spewing out of windows on the fourth floor.
Officials stated that 70 fire engines were dispatched to combat the fire, which was totally extinguished more than six hours later.
An attacker invaded the Kyoto Animation studio in 2019 and set it on fire, killing 36 people and injuring more than 30 more. The incident stunned Japan, and anime fans all across the world expressed their sorrow. A deliberately lit fire in Tokyo’s Kabukicho entertainment district killed 44 people in 2001, making it the country’s worst recorded case of arson in modern times.
