Tokyo, Dec. 19 (BNA): Japanese police on Sunday identified a 61-year-old man as the prime suspect behind a fire that engulfed a mental clinic in an eight-story building where he was a patient, killing 24 people. Trapped inside, the Associated Press reported.
The government also announced plans to inspect tens of thousands of similar buildings across the country.
Authorities believe the massive death toll in Osaka’s downtown building on Friday is largely because the fire rendered its only emergency staircase unusable.
Osaka police, who are investigating the case as fire and murder, identified the man as Morio Tanimoto.
Police said he is being treated in serious condition after being rescued from the fire. He has not been formally arrested or charged.
After checking security cameras and searching his home, police said they suspect Tanimoto was responsible for setting fire to a mental clinic, an official with the prefectural police investigations division told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Kyodo News said Tanimoto was a retired metal worker.
His former employer at the factory where he worked from 2002 to 2010 described him as hardworking and skilled. He said he quit without saying what it was.
Kyodo said Tanimoto trained at his father’s sheet metal factory in Osaka after finishing high school, but left after his brother took over and continued changing jobs.
Some of his neighbors interviewed by local media described him as a gray-haired man who used to ride bicycles and barely spoke.
The Nishi Umeda Mind and Body Clinic was on the fourth floor of an eight-story building in Osaka’s bustling Kitachinichi business district, and was known for its support of mental health at work.
Police searched Tanimoto’s home on Saturday and found the clinic’s patient card.
Authorities are investigating how smoke filled the ground so quickly that victims were trapped.
The fire, which only caught 25 square meters (270 square feet) from the floor near the reception, was put out within 30 minutes.
On Sunday, Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Yasushi Kaneko, who is also in charge of fire and disaster management, said he had ordered a nationwide inspection of some 30,000 commercial buildings of three floors or more but only one staircase.
Kaneko said many of the victims were unable to escape and died because the only stairs to the Osaka building were inaccessible due to the fire and lost their way out. He said the ministry will form an expert committee to discuss safety measures.
Police quoted eyewitnesses who saw a man entering the clinic with a paper bag and who had put it on the floor next to the fireplace next to the reception desk and kicked her. The liquid spilled and caught fire and the entire floor was engulfed in flames and smoke.
NHK TV said a security camera at the clinic captured the scene and the man was seen standing at the entrance as if blocking the road.
Witnesses and the investigation indicated that the victims were panting for air and struggling to find their way out of the clinic. Most of them were found to have collapsed while heading to the other end of the clinic, only to find no way out.
The clinic without an external staircase had several sections for consultations and workshops along only one corridor, with the main consultation room at the far end of the floor. Officials said there was no prior violation of fire prevention rules in the building.
Two visitors who witnessed the start of the fire at the front desk managed to run out.
Officials said firefighters initially found 27 people in cardiac arrest, including three who had been resuscitated. A fourth survivor was lowered by an aerial ladder from a sixth-floor window with minor injuries.
Some clients of the clinic who spoke to Japanese media said the clinic was popular and was always crowded with up to 20 people waiting, especially on Friday when advice and special programs are available for those preparing to return to work after sick leave.
The clinic’s psychiatrist, Kotaro Nishizawa, has not been reached since the fire broke out.
Over the weekend, Osaka residents brought flowers, bottled water, and canned drinks as offerings to the spirits of those departing outside the building.
The fire was a shocking reminder of the 2019 attack on the Kyoto animation studio, in which an assailant broke into and set it on fire, killing 36 people and injuring more than 30 others. The accident shocked Japan and caused great grief from anime fans around the world.
In 2001, an arson attack in Tokyo’s Kabukicho entertainment district killed 44 people – the country’s worst known arson case in modern times.
AOQ