A 35-year-old restaurant employee has been referred to prosecutors on charges of gross negligence resulting in fire after allegedly discarding a lit cigarette that triggered a deadly blaze in central Osaka, the prefectural police said on July 14.
The fire erupted on the morning of Aug. 18, 2025, near a row of buildings in the Dotonbori entertainment district. Investigators say the man tossed a lit cigarette into a gutter filled with plastic bottles and debris near an outdoor air-conditioning unit, igniting rubbish that spread across roughly 300 square metres of two adjacent buildings. The flames climbed decorative façade advertisements to the upper floors.
Two firefighters — commander Takashi Mori, 55, and firefighter Mitsunari Nagatomo, 22 — died when a backdraft erupted as a colleague opened a fifth-floor door during suppression efforts. Police declined to pursue manslaughter charges, ruling the backdraft could not have been foreseen by the suspect. The families of the fallen firefighters issued a statement expressing their grief.