Disaster Kyoto Animation studio set on fire - 35 Dead, Many Injured

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Article said:
A man started a fire at a Kyoto animation studio after spraying a liquid there Thursday morning, leaving nearly 40 people injured, several of them unconscious, and one person feared dead, local police and rescuers said.

The fire started around 10:30 a.m. at a three-story studio of Kyoto Animation Co., a company known for producing popular TV animation series "K-On!!" and "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" (Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu).

The man believed to have set the fire, apparently in his 40s, was among the injured and has been taken to a hospital.
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This appears to still be ongoing and details are pretty sparse between any article covering it in english at least. This seems like a very unique case though, in that I don't think there is any precedent for this kind of thing at all.

10+ dead at this point.
View attachment 846932
According to Kyoto Police and fire department, one person died on first floor.
12 more cardiac arrest (dead).
36 more injured, 10 severe, 6 moderate, 20 meh.

View attachment 847467
Locations and Bodycounts based on areas of the building. The 19 on the staircase on the third floor are pretty much stacked on eachother as they tried to make a rush to the roof, but appearantly the door only opens from the outside (suicide prevention) or was a pull door.

How can I support?
There is no clear indication of where the funds are headed as of yet, other than that they will be on hold until they can coordinate a distribution method.
This is a direct link to the KyoAni shop. A Twitter user has provided a guide for creating an account and making purchases.

Who?: 青葉真司 AOBA, Shinji. 41, unemployed. He was not an employee at any point. He had a prior arrest in 2012 for robbing a convenience of 20,000 yen and was in jail for 3.5 years. In 2016 he was released and lived in a rehabilitation facility before moving to a single apartment somewhere in Saitama. In March and August of 2018 police went to his apartment over Noise Complaints. July 14 days prior to the incident he had grabbed and threatened to kill a neighbor after they complained about noise, police were called again. He was spotted the day before the incident within the area of the studio laying on park benches.

How?:He brought 40 liters of Gasoline between 2 tanks, a BBQ lighter, and a bag with knives and a hammer. He used a pushcart to transport everything to a nearby area. Poured the gasoline at the entrance by the spiral staircase, which funneled the fire and smoke upwards at a rapid rate. He himself was caught in the fire. Due to an event being held that day, the security system which used ID cards had been disabled that day for a guest event, allowing him entrance.

Why?: Currently the theories are taken from statements that have been connected to him prior on 2ch/annel, and something he said while arrested.
1; Music/A song he may have claimed ownership too was used in Sound! Euphonium
2; He was a Railfan that had snapped over wrappings on a train "dirtying" it (This is being disputed by news stations)

3; Possibly another undetermined claim of them "ripping him off". Now claimed to be over a novel he had written, which was "plagiarized" by KyoAni. This is the prevailing theory as of yet due to his statements to the police
4; His waifu he shipped with another girl was confirmed to not be gay, got a boyfriend or was interested in one, and is not "pure" anymore

How many people were injured or killed?: 35 Confirmed Dead, 33 others injured, with 8 of them in critical condition. 6 Escaped unharmed.
Police say 74 people were in the building at the time of the attack. Some of which were guests from an outside studio attending an event.

Who died? (this may partly be speculation, its built off of people not being accounted for):
-Takemoto Yasuhiro
-Kawanami Eisaku
-Nishiya Futoshi
-Ishida Naomi
-Tsuda Yukie
-Ono Megumi

Here's a newer article with a more detailed explanation of the situation
Asahi Times Article said:
KYOTO--Thirty-three people were killed and 17 others remain hospitalized after a suspected arsonist set fire to a three-story animation studio here on July 18, police and fire department officials said.

Some of the 36 people injured in the fire were unconscious, according to Kyoto prefectural police.

The studio, operated by Kyoto Animation Co., is located in a residential area in Kyoto’s Fushimi Ward about 100 meters north of Rokujizo Station on Keihan Electric Railway Co.’s Uji Line. There were about 70 people in the studio at the time.

Several neighbors called the fire department around 10:35 a.m. after they heard an explosion and saw smoke rising from the building. Thirty-five firetrucks were dispatched to the scene.

Police detained a 41-year-old man who is believed to have spread a flammable liquid in the area. Witnesses said he ran into the building screaming, “Die.”

He was injured in the incident and remains unconcious at a hospital.

A 61-year-old woman in the neighborhood said she initially mistook the suspect for a victim of the blaze.

She said she opened the front entrance to her home after the interphone sounded and found a large man kneeling on the ground. Both of his arms had burns and his right leg was on fire. His hair appeared singed.

The woman asked the weakened man if he was all right, but he did not respond. She used a hose to pour water on the man.

As she waited for an ambulance, a number of police officers surrounded the man and peppered him with questions about how he entered the studio and why he set it on fire, she said.

The woman said she could not catch much of what the man said, but she did clearly hear him shout, “They ripped me off.”

A woman in her 20s who works nearby said she went outside after hearing the explosion around 10:30 a.m. When she approached the burning building, she saw a man apparently in his 20s trying to escape along a support on the outer wall on the second story.

The woman and a co-worker brought a ladder to the building to help the man reach the ground.

The head of a local taxi company’s branch near the site said two men ran into the office around 10:40 a.m. and asked that the fire department be called.

One of the men was assisting the other, whose clothes were badly burned. The branch chief tried to support the two while they waited for an ambulance to arrive.

A 22-year-old man said he heard two or three explosions and saw black smoke emerging from a first-floor window. He said flames could be seen in many of the building’s windows.

Kyoto Animation has produced a number of popular TV anime series, such as “K-On!,” “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya” and “Sound! Euphonium.”

Although many major animation companies are located in the Tokyo area, Kyoto Animation has kept its base of operations in the ancient capital since its founding in 1981 because the city has accumulated a long cultural history, company officials said.

Much of the work on the company’s TV programs and movies is done in Kyoto.

Sources-
http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201907190042.html
http://archive.fo/WZ1Ed
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20190719/p2a/00m/0na/003000c
http://archive.fo/zr1gf
https://english.kyodonews.net/news/...-repeatedly-caused-trouble-for-neighbors.html
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20190719_32/
http://archive.fo/qNZ6l

Edit: Cleaned formatting, additional information, trying to identify what is speculated, spelling/grammar.
Edit: Added information, added sources, archived sources.
 
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Considering stuff like the Chisso scandal makes Private Villa of Corrupted Crops look like potatoes, I don't think so.


The building is fairly new (2015), and the last inspection in October determined it to be in compliance. Of course people are going to bitch that Japan, a country with more earthquakes than my bowel movements, somehow has shitty fire codes because the perp targeted the fire exist and another door happened to be locked that day, and therefore need to be overhauled. Either that, or Japan should ban assault gas cans.

The biggest lesson learned, or rather to be renewed since the subway gas attacks here is "see something, say something" because the perp was taking his time dousing everything in gas and nobody was likely paying attention. It's the sad clown world we live in, even for Japan and its minimal cultural enrichment.

Locking the roof access door is unforgivably stupid. For any reason. From the pictures its also clear the roof did not collapse. 19 people or more would be alive right now if not for that. If Japanese fire codes do allow for such practices then they are indeed shit. If you want to keep people off the roof outside an emergency just put an alarm on the door.
 
It's incredibly ironic that a studio that pumped out so much 2D girlfriend/boyfriend material finally got torched by an otaku of trains.
 
Still somehow seems wrong that some random sperglord 'channer could think "you know what let me burn a company down for realzies" and go ahead and actually kill 33 people thanks in large part to shit like the one ceiling exit being locked from the inside.
Still somehow seems wrong people should have to anticipate these kind of horrifying incidents.

Locking the roof access door is unforgivably stupid. For any reason. From the pictures its also clear the roof did not collapse. 19 people or more would be alive right now if not for that. If Japanese fire codes do allow for such practices then they are indeed shit.
Um, I'm pretty sure they don't, and clearly it was locked after the building was inspected. If it were in between, they would be in deep shit.
 
The building is fairly new (2015), and the last inspection in October determined it to be in compliance. Of course people are going to bitch that Japan, a country with more earthquakes than my bowel movements, somehow has shitty fire codes because the perp targeted the fire exist and another door happened to be locked that day, and therefore need to be overhauled.
If one staircase and no fire suppression of any sort is in compliance of the code then clearly the fire codes DO need to be overhauled; several of the 69 victims could be safe and well rather than suffering burns or dead.
 
If one staircase and no fire suppression of any sort is in compliance of the code then clearly the fire codes DO need to be overhauled; several of the 69 victims could be safe and well rather than suffering burns or dead.
The building is relatively small, and requiring multiple staircases would result in even more limited usable square footage, even by Japanese standards.
 
See...

What's the difference of the guy going for the key frames... vs the priest that ran into Notre Dame to save the Crown of Thorns?

I get why they did it and I don't agree with it either, but... I don't know.

This whole thing is depressing.
 

"I saw people who were totally black or covered in blood, or who had suffered burns all over their body. One of them claimed to have been splashed with kerosene or something like it," said a 53-year-old local woman.



She said she handed water to some of them as they waited for rescue workers following the suspected arson at the three-story studio of Kyoto Animation Co., a well-known site for anime fans.



Footage posted on the internet showed thick black smoke belching out of almost all the windows of the building whose glass had melted.



Kota Yamaguchi, a 16-year-old high school student who lives near the studio, said the sky turned black with the smoke, and he then saw red flames coming from windows on the third floor of the building.



"Five or six injured people were lying on benches and blue sheets, looking limp, and among them was a woman bleeding from her head," Yamaguchi said. "Neighbors were busy bringing blocks of ice and drinks for the people with burns
 
Fucking horrible that this happened. All these people dying because of a butthurt trainsperg.

They all did great work too. Nichijou in particular was a favorite of mine.
 
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This is taken from the /a/ thread of people watching news streams, its alleged to be a graduation photo of the perpetrator. So from about 23 or so years ago given his current age.

As far as I can tell his name may be Kumasawa Eiichirou


Edit: I can't find any other sources talking about this so I would take it with a grain of salt.
 
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There's a Wikipedia article on this incident already and, according to Japanese sources, once the murderer was in the ambulance on his way to the hospital he accused Kyoto Animation of "ripping off" or "plagiarizing" (パクり やがって). I can't verify it because I can't read Japanese but there are multiple sources.

Even if Kyoto Animation did steal his novel (which may very well just be a delusion on the arsonist's part), it's still an absolutely disgusting and unforgivable thing to do. Those animators are just decent, talented people trying to make a living.
 
There's a Wikipedia article on this incident already and, according to Japanese sources, once the murderer was in the ambulance on his way to the hospital he accused Kyoto Animation of "ripping off" or "plagiarizing" (パクり やがって). I can't verify it because I can't read Japanese but there are multiple sources.

Even if Kyoto Animation did steal his novel (which may very well just be a delusion on the arsonist's part), it's still an absolutely disgusting and unforgivable thing to do. Those animators are just decent people trying to make a living.

The conspiracy theory is they "plagiarized" his made up word about trains.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if the death toll starts rising again in the next couple of days or so. Japanese emergency medical services (not just ambulances, ERs too) are known for being ridiculously slow, ineffective, and bureaucratic. I remember reading somewhere that most Japanese ambulance staff are only trained in very basic first aid and oxygen administration, and that they're not even certified in CPR. Also read that Japanese ambulances have pretty much no way of communicating with hospitals and will occasionally drive around for hours looking for an ER that isn't full.
 
Oh Jesus I watched that Station fire video, it's easily the most effective "keep an eye out for emergency exits and WALK CALMLY AND DON'T FUCKING SHOVE PEOPLE" PSAs I've seen, I can still hear those fucking screams when it's mentioned.

@Null Can we have a "Trying too hard to be edgy" reaction in honor of the people on the first couple of pages who were mocking or justifying 33 people dying just because "hurr hurr, fuck anime lol"?

My coworker who was first due Search for the NYC Happyland Disco Fire described it like this
(Warning not for squeamish)
Okay, just to explain a little bit to start off. For a structure fire there are typically two main functional teams. Hose or Nozzle crews who go in and attack the fire, and search teams who go in to search and evacuate the building or effect rescue. Search is often a combined duty of Ladder companies who’s role is forcible entry, providing access and laddering the building, roof work such as venting the roof, and Primary Search. Engine companies lay hose, get water and get the water on the fire. Most departments will also have a dedicated specialty Rescue company. In a structural fire if they are on scene they do Primary Search. But they typically aren’t first due. A large city may have fifty Ladder Companies, 100 Engine Companies and 1 or 2 Rescue companies. NYC only has 9 Rescue companies spread across all 5 boroughs.

If you have never done a Search in a burning building there is really no way to grasp just how insanely difficult it is. You are almost fully encapsulated in heavy heavy gear. Thick gloves that you have no ability to really feel through. You are crawling as low as you can get to stay out of the heat and smoke and to try and get even a touch of visibility. And there is no visibility. If is a swirling chaotic darkness. You are reaching out, crawling through this trying to feel for anything. Mostly using walls for navigation and using an axe or tool to extend the sweep of your arm. Always trying to stay in physical contact with your partner. And mostly deafened by the sound of your own breathing gear. What you are mainly searching for are lumps on the floor. You have no fine senses.

Into this environment my buddy and his partner went in to search the main room of the disco. They circled the walls and found nothing. So they cut straight across the dance floor. In the middle of the dance floor my friend found something sticking up out of the floor. As he grabbed it he realized it was a hand. Confused he followed the arm down, that was poking up through the floor. As they followed it down they suddenly realized that what they were crawling on was people. The entire floor of the club wall to wall was densely packed bodies like something out of nightmares. They had just crawled almost 100’ across this hellscape without realizing it. Needless to say it had an impact on him.

I guarantee that back stairwell where they found 20 victims was similar.
Considering stuff like the Chisso scandal makes Private Villa of Corrupted Crops look like potatoes, I don't think so.


The building is fairly new (2015), and the last inspection in October determined it to be in compliance. Of course people are going to bitch that Japan, a country with more earthquakes than my bowel movements, somehow has shitty fire codes because the perp targeted the fire exist and another door happened to be locked that day, and therefore need to be overhauled. Either that, or Japan should ban assault gas cans.

The biggest lesson learned, or rather to be renewed since the subway gas attacks here is "see something, say something" because the perp was taking his time dousing everything in gas and nobody was likely paying attention. It's the sad clown world we live in, even for Japan and its minimal cultural enrichment.

The problem isn’t lack of fire codes. Japan has some of the most stringent in the world. This sounds more like a failure of inspection and enforcement.

Locking the roof access door is unforgivably stupid. For any reason. From the pictures its also clear the roof did not collapse. 19 people or more would be alive right now if not for that. If Japanese fire codes do allow for such practices then they are indeed shit. If you want to keep people off the roof outside an emergency just put an alarm on the door.

Look again at the pictures of that roof. There is something there that you don’t typically see on North American buildings. And once you realize what it is it becomes clear why a lot of businesses and apartment buildings in Japan probably do.lock or prevent roof access.

Look at the netting all around the parapet. That’s safety netting. It’s to prevent people from jumping off the building. Fires like this are uncommon in Japan. But suicide by flinging yourself off a convenient tall building is not. And that’s the absurdity of this tragedy. That door was probably locked to prevent somebody from harming themselves. To prevent the more common and expected tragedy. Not as some weird paranoid business practice.
 
I'm just glad that people are supporting the survivors and the families and friends that lost their loved ones to this tragedy.
No one in Kyoto Animation deserved this and all we can do is show love and kindness to the people that became victims of this tragedy.

As sad as this may be, this should not stop us from being decent human beings and hold out our hands to those that are in need.
 
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