Paris hotel fire kills 15
2005-04-15 07:57
Paris - At least 15 people died and more than 50 were injured when fire swept through a hotel in central Paris early on Friday, a fire service spokesperson said.
Some guests leapt from windows to escape the blaze, which destroyed the one-star six-storey Paris-Opera hotel in the city's ninth district, said the spokesperson, Laurent Vibert.
Firefighters had extinguished the flames by 03:30, about one hour after reaching the scene.
He said 15 people were killed and 57 were injured, 12 of them seriously, from burns, smoke inhalation or shock.
An emergency medical centre and a makeshift morgue were set up in the nearby Galeries Lafayette department store.
Fifty seven fire trucks and several medical teams were called to the scene, near the city's historic Garnier opera house.
It was not clear what caused the blaze.
Vibert said 76 people were staying at the 32-room budget hotel, which local residents said was home to numerous families, many of them African.
Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin visited the scene, his office said.
Vibert said 76 people were staying at the 32-room budget hotel, which local residents said was home to numerous immigrant families, many of them African.
Several prostitutes working in small hotels in the area witnessed the fire.
One of them, Laure, 41, said she heard "screams and cries for help" from the guests who were caught by fire while sleeping and some of whom jumped from their windows, landing on the street with a "thud."
She told AFP she helped some women in the hotel to escape through a skylight window.
Several of the bodies were found in the rooms and one firefighter was bringing the body of a woman down a ladder.