Japan, Osaka, Seven Story Store fire 13/05/1972
Is one of Osaka’s largest electronics stores haunted? Japanese netizens say sure, it’s summer
In Japan, summer is seen as the time when the line between the living and the dead becomes blurry and paranormal activity is said to be at its highest. This is the season when studios like to put out horror movies, restaurants like to put out drinks based on horror movies, and youngsters like to share ghost stories online.
118 Killed in Japan In a Nightclub Fire
OSAKA, Japan, Sunday, May 14—At least 118 persons died in a fire that swept through a department store building here last night.
The dead were trapped in the Playtown Cabaret, a nightclub on the top floor of the seven‐story Sennichi department store building in the center of Osaka, about 300 miles southwest of Tokyo.
Osaka Sennichi Department Store Building Fire
At around 10:30 p.m. on May 13, Showa 47, a shocking building fire broke out in the downtown area of Osaka Minami. That was the Sennichi department store fire. A fire broke out on the third floor, near the clothing section of a department store under renovation, and quickly flared up, burning the second and fourth floors through a portion of the escalator. Smoke spread rapidly from elevator shafts, air conditioning ducts, and stairwells to the upper floors, and without any fire notification, customers and employees of the Playtown cabaret operating on the seventh floor panicked by the thick smoke that was emanating from them, leaving them with nowhere to escape and claiming the lives of 118 people. |
Tragedy in Osaka: the Sennichi Fire
In the Namba district of downtown Osaka stands the eight-story BIC Camera building. Until Corona struck, it was an exciting place to shop, packed every day with visiting tourists. It guards the entrance to the Sennichimae arcade, a noisy, bustling street lined with restaurants, diners, bars, karaoke and pachinko parlors. Typical Osaka, although now muted because of Covid 19.
