Myojo 56 building fire

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The Myojo 56 building fire (明星56ビル火災, Myōjō Gojū-Roku Biru Kasai^?) was a fire that occurred in the Kabukicho section of Shinjuku, Tokyo on September 1, 2001.

The fire occurred in the third floor of the building. When the fire burned, 19 people were on the third floor and 28 people were on the fourth floor. Three employees jumped from the third floor, and they survived, suffering injury. Witnesses, who saw a falling employee, called an ambulance car.

They found soon after that this reason was the fire. The firemen rescued other 44 people (32 men and 12 women), but they were finally dead. The main cause of deaths was Carbon monoxide.

The information of the fire were becoming snarled at first. BBC reported that the victims "escaped" from the fire^[1], but in reality there was no time to escape (they were killed in 1 or 2 minutes according to later The Japan Times's report^[2]).

Because the victims were killed with unusual speed, the owners of building were arrested for violating the fire code.^[3] After they reached an agreement, the building was demolished in May 2006.

One injured man was seen near the fired building, but he disappeared after that. The cause of fire is believed arson, but the arsonist has not been arrested mainly because the security is poor in Kabukicho.