OSAKA—A ceiling collapse during firefighting efforts at the Aug. 18 blaze in the downtown Dotonbori district apparently trapped two firefighters and led to their deaths, the Osaka City Fire Department said.
Fire commander Takashi Mori, 55, and firefighter Mitsunari Nagatomo, 22, were found on the sixth floor of the burned-out building.
Fire officials believe that after evacuating from a lower floor due to the ceiling collapse, they lost their escape route.
On the morning of Aug. 19, mourners flocked to the fire scene to offer a silent prayer to the two men.
“Such a regrettable loss. It must have been unbearably hot,” said a 55-year-old man who came to lay flowers just before 11 a.m.
He said he was a classmate of Mori at the firefighting school where they learned fire-fighting skills and trained together. He recalled that Mori was very caring toward younger firefighters.
“When I think about what he must have been feeling in his final moments, it’s very sad,” the man said. “I want to use this tragedy as a lesson and tell everyone to be careful during firefighting operations.”
Another man, 22, came to pray for Nagatomo. He said he was a classmate of Nagatomo at the firefighting school.
“Why did this happen?” he said.
He described Nagatomo as kind and always positive during training.
“I might have been in the same situation,” he said. “As long as I’m in the fire-fighting service, I don’t want anyone to die.”
The fire broke out on the morning of Aug. 18 in a multi-tenant building near the Ebisubashi bridge in the bustling Soemoncho area of Osaka’s Chuo Ward, not far from the iconic Glico running man advertising sign.
The blaze damaged approximately 100 square meters across two buildings—a six-story building and a seven-story building.
The ceiling is believed to have collapsed between the fifth and sixth floors of the seven-story building.
Osaka prefectural police on Aug. 19 began an on-site investigation along with the Osaka City Fire Department.
They found that the fire burned intensely through the lower southern part of the six-story building.
Prefectural police believe that after the fire started, it spread to the neighboring seven-story building, which was partially connected by a passageway.
Seven firefighters were taken to the hospital, including the deceased, who all worked at the Naniwa Fire Station.
According to the police, autopsies revealed that the cause of death for Mori and Nagatomo was suffocation due to lack of oxygen.
According to the city fire department and others, the two firefighters who died entered the seven-story building from the first floor with one other team member.
They went upstairs using the stairs to fight the blaze with water hoses.
Osaka Mayor Hideyuki Yokoyama said at a news conference on Aug. 19 that it is likely that the two firefighters were working on the fifth floor when the ceiling collapsed, sealing off their evacuation route.
They then likely headed up to the sixth floor, where they may have had difficulty breathing.
However, officials said a detailed investigation is needed to clarify the exact circumstances at the time.
The city government plans to further investigate the cause through an accident investigation committee that will be established on Aug. 21.
In June 2023, the city fire department conducted an inspection of the building where the fire occurred. Officials found six fire code violations and issued administrative guidance, but some of the issues had not been fully corrected.
(This article was written by Tomoki Miyasaka and Hayato Murai.)
AloJapan.com