Kyoto, Japan - Smoke spread so quickly
through a burning Japanese animation company that a majority of
victims who had tried to flee through a rooftop door were unable
to open it before perishing, Japanese media said on Monday.
The attack at Kyoto Animation on Thursday, in which a man
shouting "Die!" poured a bucket of gasoline at the entrance to
the building and lit it, took 34 lives and ranks as one of the
worst mass killings in Japan for decades.
Of those who died, 19 were found piled on top of each other
on a stairway between the third floor and a door to the roof,
with some early reports suggesting it could not be opened from
the inside.
But police quoted by NHK national television on Monday said
investigations had shown that while the door could be opened
from the inside, smoke from the blaze had apparently spread so
fast that the victims were overcome before being able to do so.
Kyoto police said on Monday that of the 26 people whose
autopsy results have been released, 20 burned to death, three
died of carbon monoxide poisoning and two suffocated. The cause
of death of one remained undetermined.
On Monday, scaffolding had been erected by the first floor
of the building whose outside walls were charred black.
Aluminium windows were burnt away on the second storey.
Experts said that a spiral staircase near where suspect
Shinji Aoba, 41, allegedly lit the fire acted as a chimney to
funnel the smoke upwards through all three storeys of the
building. Survivors have described a "dark mushroom cloud" of
smoke pouring up the staircase.
A police officer stands in front of the Kyoto Animation Studio building consumed in an arson attack in Kyoto, Japan. The man suspected of setting ablaze a beloved Japanese animation studio was raging about theft and witnesses and media reported he had a grudge against the company, as questions arose why such mass killings keep happening in the country. Picture: Jae C. Hong/AP
"I heard voices arguing on the first floor, then within 15
seconds black smoke welled up from the staircase," one survivor
was quoted as telling NHK.
Police quoted by NHK said a second set of stairs, on which
many of the victims were found, also may have had a similar
effect, meaning that the victims were rapidly overcome by smoke.
The company late on Sunday issued a statement saying that
the tragedy had left them at a loss.
"All of these people were our talented, precious colleagues.
Both for us here as well as the animation industry as a whole,
this is a huge blow," the statement added.
Late on Saturday, police issued an arrest warrant for Aoba,
a loner from a city near Tokyo who is in hospital with serious
burns. Police plan to arrest him once he recovers.