27 feared dead after blaze at psychiatry clinic in Osaka
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OSAKA • A fire swept through a psychiatry clinic in the Japanese city of Osaka yesterday, with 27 people feared dead and the police reported to be investigating possible arson.
The blaze broke out on the fourth floor of an office building in a busy district of the western city around 9am, public broadcaster NHK said.
A man who looked to be in his 50s or 60s was seen carrying a bag filled with liquid into the building, where he put it down near a heater and knocked it over, spilling the liquid and starting the fire, Kyodo News reported.
Other media outlets said the man was believed to be a patient of the clinic, and that he carried a bag leaking liquid into the reception area before the fire started.
An official at Osaka city's fire department earlier told Reuters that 27 people had suffered from cardiopulmonary arrest, the term used in Japan before a death is officially confirmed. Another person was injured, the official said.
The fire was mostly extinguished within 30 minutes, according to NHK. Footage showed smoke pouring out of the windows of the fourth floor, as well as from the roof.
"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," a 36-year-old woman who works in an office nearby told Kyodo News.
Located in a shopping and entertainment district not far from Osaka's main train station, the building also houses a beauty salon, a clothing shop and an English-language school, NHK said.
By evening, most of the fire trucks were gone. The burnt, broken windows were covered with blue tarpaulin.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida offered condolences and said the authorities were working to determine the cause.
The father of a doctor who ran the clinic was unable to reach him by mobile phone, he told the Yomiuri newspaper.
"Around noon, I heard there was news of a fire on television and was surprised. My wife went to the site but we still don't know what's going on," he said.
The clinic's website was not accessible, but an Internet archive from earlier this year showed that it treated patients for issues ranging from depression and panic to sleep apnoea and anaemia.
An arson attack in the city of Kyoto in 2019 killed more than 30 people and injured dozens.
REUTERS
