Overview
- In Tsushima, Aichi, a municipal housing blaze around midnight on January 4 destroyed two single-story units and partly damaged a third, and two bodies were recovered as police work to confirm whether they are an 81-year-old resident and his wife in her 80s.
- Osaka’s Hirano Ward saw a third-floor apartment fire reported at 12:40 a.m. on January 4 that left one man dead, and police are trying to verify whether the room’s resident, a man in his 50s who cannot be reached, is the victim.
- Around 2 a.m. on January 4 in Kadoma, Osaka Prefecture, a three-story wooden house was nearly destroyed, and an elderly woman and a man in his 40s were hospitalized for suspected carbon monoxide poisoning without life-threatening injuries.
- In Toride, Ibaraki, a January 2 house fire led to the deaths of residents Sato Yatsuo, 89, and his wife Tomoko, 82, as prefectural police examine whether an electrical appliance sparked the blaze.
- Local media also report that Osaka Prefecture recorded five fire deaths between December 29 and January 2, underscoring a recent concentration of serious residential fires.