TRAGEDY

Patient Lit Fire at Osaka Mental Health Clinic That Killed 24

Tanimoto is among the 27 people who were taken to the hospital after the fire, and is currently in critical condition from carbon monoxide poisoning.

61-year-old Morio Tanimoto has been identified as the arsonist behind the Osaka mental clinic fire that killed 24 people on Friday. Tanimoto was himself a patient at the mental clinic, situated in a multiple tenant building in Osaka. Until 2010, Tanimoto was employed at an Osaka factory as a construction sheet metal worker. He was described as “hardworking” and as someone who “did not do any bad things.”

In 2011, after leaving his factory job, Tanimoto was arrested for attempted murder when he allegedly stabbed his son in the head with a kitchen wife. He is currently in critical condition because of carbon monoxide poisoning and was among the 27 victims taken to the hospital after the clinic was set ablaze. Tanimoto was identified by authorities from security footage and from witnesses who said he placed a paper bag near a heater in the clinic’s reception area and kicked it, starting the fire when liquid flowed out of the bag.

Fourteen of the fire’s 24 victims have so far been identified. They include Kotaro Nishizawa, the director of the clinic.