OSAKA - A 76-year-old man was arrested on September 27 on suspicion of arson after a fire destroyed approximately 560 square meters of a wooden apartment building in Osaka's Higashiyodogawa Ward, prompting the dispatch of 52 fire engines and taking around nine hours to extinguish.
The suspect, an unemployed resident of Higashiyodogawa Ward, is accused of deliberately starting a fire by an unspecified method in his second-floor apartment in Awaji 3-chome on September 26, causing extensive damage to the two-story wooden building.
A nearby resident contacted the fire department at around 11 p.m. on September 26, reporting smoke and a burning smell. Firefighters dispatched 52 fire engines to the scene and brought the blaze under control approximately nine hours later, on the morning of September 27.
The fire burned approximately 560 square meters of the apartment building. No injuries were reported.
The suspect, who lived alone in a second-floor apartment, could not be contacted following the fire, and his whereabouts were initially unknown.
He subsequently turned himself in at a police box in front of Awaji Station at 4:41 a.m. on September 27.
Police arrested him at Higashiyodogawa Police Station at 11:53 a.m. the same day on suspicion of setting fire to an inhabited building.
During questioning, the man admitted to starting the blaze, telling investigators, "There is no doubt that I set fire to a blanket in my home."
Source: KTV NEWS
