SAITAMA (TR) – A fire that broke out inside a sex parlor in Saitama City’s Omiya ward on Sunday afternoon has left four persons dead and another eight injured, one critically, reports the Asahi Shimbun (Dec. 17).
At around 2:00 p.m., a male employee at fuzoku parlor Kawaii Omiya, located inside a three-floor building about 300 meters from JR Omiya Station, telephoned emergency services to report that a fire had broken out.
According to the Omiya Police Station and local fire officials, the fire engulfed the second and third floors. Twenty fire trucks worked to extinguish the blaze over a roughly five-hour period.
Among those confirmed dead are two women in their 20s and a man in his 40s. A burned body of unknown gender was found on the third floor of the building.
One of the eight persons injured is in critical condition, police said, while the other seven have minor injuries.
A male company worker who was inside a nearby coffee shop said that he could smell the smoke from the fire while inside. “Then I saw white smoke from the window,” he told the Sankei Shimbun (Dec. 17). “There was quite an uproar inside after that.”
Update: A woman who was confirmed dead was brought back to life, which has reduced the initial report of the number of deceased from five to four.
