27 feared dead in building fire in Osaka

OSAKA, Japan－Twenty-seven people were feared dead after a blaze swept through a commercial building housing a mental health clinic in the Japanese city of Osaka on Friday, as reports said police considered arson as a possible cause of the fire.

As of press time, 24 deaths had been confirmed by doctors, public broadcaster NHK said.

Fuji TV reported that most of those who died in the fire were believed to have suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning.

TV footage showed dozens of firefighters working inside and outside the narrow office building after the blaze was extinguished.

The charred interior of the fourth floor, which housed a clinic that provided mental health services and general medical care, was visible through broken and blackened windows. The building also houses a beauty salon, a clothes shop and an English language school, reported NHK.

An Osaka police spokesman said officers were investigating the cause of the fire. But he could not confirm media reports citing police sources saying that arson was a possibility.

Yomiuri Shimbun reported that a man in his 50s or 60s brought in a bag that leaked flammable liquid and was ignited. A Mainichi Shimbun report said he was believed to be a patient at the clinic.

A young woman who witnessed the fire told public broadcaster NHK that she saw a woman trapped on the fourth floor.

"She leaned out (from a window) and was saying things like 'Please help'. ... She seemed very weak. Maybe she inhaled lots of smoke," the woman said.

The Osaka fire department said 27 of the 28 people injured in the blaze showed no signs of life. In Japan, only a doctor can officially certify someone is dead.

Pouring smoke

"The fire was detected at 10:18 am on the fourth floor" of the eight-story structure, said a fire department official. "As of noon, 70 fire engines are at the scene."

The blaze, which broke out in a busy business area near Kitashinchi train station in the western Japanese city, had been put out after half an hour, the official added.

Most of the building's exterior remained intact after the fire, with around 20 square meters reportedly burned in the blaze.

Video footage from NHK showed smoke pouring out of the windows of the fourth floor, where the clinic was located, as well as the roof of the multistory office building. Footage later showed the windows blackened and charred.

"When I looked outside, I saw orange flames in the fourth-floor window of the building. A woman was waving her hands for help from the sixth floor window," said a 36-year-old woman, who works at a company nearby, to Kyodo.

"There was lots of dark smoke, ... there was a very strong smell, too," said a middle-aged woman to NHK at the scene.

Osaka, a major economic hub, is Japan's second-biggest metropolis after the greater Tokyo region.

Deadly fires are unusual in Japan, which has strict building standards, and violent crime is also rare.

One year ago, a man was charged with murder over a 2019 arson attack on a Kyoto animation studio that killed 36 people, the country's deadliest violent crime in decades. The attack sent shock waves throughout the anime industry and its fans in Japan and around the world.

A 2008 arson attack on a video shop in Osaka killed 16 people. The attacker is now on death row.

Agencies - Xinhua