A Japanese couple died after a fire broke out in a private sauna room at a sauna facility in Tokyo earlier this week.
The fire broke out at Sauna Tiger in Tokyo just after noon local time on Monday, the establishment said on its website. Sauna Tiger said two customers were hospitalized following the incident and subsequently died at the hospital; the facility said it is cooperating with authorities to determine the cause of the fire.
The victims were Yoko Matsuda, 37, and her husband Masanari Matsuda, 36, according to Japanese English-language news site The Mainichi. Authorities have not specified a cause of death.
A burnt towel was found inside the sauna room, and investigators believe the towel could have caught fire from heated stones inside the room, according to The Mainichi.
Investigative sources told Japanese newspaper The Asahi Shimbun that there was an emergency button inside the private sauna room that should have been able to alert employees that something was wrong. Sauna Tiger employees, in turn, told the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department that power to the button had been off since 2023, according to The Asahi Shimbun.
In addition, the doorknob to the private sauna room was faulty. Firefighters arrived to find an L-shaped doorknob had fallen off the door, preventing it from being opened, according to the Japanese news agency Jiji Press.
On its website, Sauna Tiger said, “We offer our deepest condolences to the families of the two customers who lost their lives … We take this incident at one of our stores very seriously, and offer our deepest apologies for the loss of precious lives. We are currently cooperating fully with the investigations by the fire department, police, and other relevant authorities,” as translated from Japanese.
The sauna facility is closed for now and has refunded customers who had reservations.
