At Least 10 Dead in Paris Fire

PARIS (AP) — Paris' deadliest fire in over a decade claimed at least 10 lives Tuesday, sending fleeing residents to the roof and clambering across balconies as flames rapidly engulfed their nine-story apartment building. A 40-year-old female resident of the building, said to have a history of psychiatric problems, was arrested on the street in the hours after the 1 a.m. blaze, as French police opened a criminal investigation into voluntary arson resulting in death. Officials said the unnamed woman, who is in police custody, was drunk. Multiple neighbors said they heard the suspect and her neighbor, an off-duty firefighter, arguing over the woman's music before the fire broke out, then heard the woman cry out: "So you're a firefighter? Here's a fire." Police responding to the dispute between the neighbors, who both live on the third floor, had stopped by the woman's apartment earlier in the night. The firefighter and his girlfriend told officers they were leaving to go sleep elsewhere in peace and warned them that the neighbor 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 blaze originated on the floor that the suspect and firefighter shared. Survivors described a chaos of smoke and flames. One neighbor recalled clambering out of her eighth-floor apartment over balconies. "I climbed across several balconies, with nothing beneath, and then was backed into a corner. There we...
Source: JEMS: Journal of Emergency Medical Services News - Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: International Major Incidents News Source Type: news