Apartment inferno kills 10; deadliest Paris fire since 2005

PARIS (AP):

Paris’ deadliest fire in more than a decade killed at least 10 people yesterday as flames engulfed a nine-storey apartment building, sending residents to the roof and clambering across balconies to escape.

A 40-year-old woman who lived in the building, said to have a history of psychiatric problems, was arrested nearby and held on suspicion of having set the fire not long before. French police opened a criminal investigation for voluntary arson resulting in death.

Multiple neighbours said they heard the suspect and her neighbour, an off-duty fire-fighter, arguing over the woman’s music before the fire broke out, then heard the woman cry out: “So you’re a fire-fighter? Here’s a fire.”

Police responding to the dispute stopped by the woman’s apartment earlier in the night. The fire-fighter and his girlfriend told officers they were leaving to go sleep elsewhere in peace and warned them the neighbour had lost her mind and one day there would be an accident because of her, according to a police report seen by The Associated Press.

The fire started sometime after midnight and originated on the same floor the suspect and fire-fighter occupied. Survivors described a chaos of smoke and flames. One neighbour recalled clambering out of her eighth-floor apartment and over balconies to reach safety.

“I climbed across several balconies, with nothing beneath, and then was backed into a corner. There were people climbing hand-over-hand to get to where I was and escape the flames,” said a resident identified only as Claire, her eyes wide with shock soon after her rescue.

Another resident, an off-duty police officer, threw on clothes and rang doorbell after doorbell, trying desperately to alert his neighbours.

“I couldn’t save everyone. I can’t forgive myself,” the man identified as Fabrice told France Info radio, adding that smoke and flames prevented him from climbing higher than the fourth floor.