Fire in an apartment in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, 23 people treated

The impressive images quickly made the rounds on social networks. Tuesday evening, September 1, a fire broke out in the bedroom of an apartment located on the 12th and top floor of a building in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, between the Belleville and Ménilmontant districts. Contacted by Le Figaro around 11 p.m., the police headquarters announced that 23 vehicles and 90 firefighters had been dispatched to the scene.

Shortly after midnight, the same source indicated that the flames, once visible several dozen meters away, were “contained”. If the 80 m² apartment was completely destroyed by the flames, as our colleagues from BFM indicate, the rapid intervention of the firefighters made it possible to save the rest of the building, evacuated as a precaution. Three people from the building were, however, taken into custody for poisoning, the Paris prosecutor's office told Le Figaro this Wednesday.

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“I thought there were fireworks”

A blatant investigation was also opened “under the qualification of involuntary destruction of the property of others by explosion or fire due to failure to comply with an obligation of safety or prudence”, specifies this same source. This followed the discovery in the accommodation, occupied at the time of the events, of nitrous oxide canisters and fireworks mortars which would have exploded during the fire. “I thought there were fireworks,” a local resident assured Le Parisien.

“The investigation is continuing to establish the precise cause of the fire,” assures the Paris prosecutor’s office. For its part, Paris Habitat indicates to Le Parisien that it “was present throughout the night to put in place solutions to support tenants”. “12 households were relocated to a hotel for several nights. Our teams are hard at work assessing the duration of the rehabilitation of the accommodation and the possible need to provide rehousing beyond hotel nights.