16 die as fire rips through Paris hotel

People jumped from windows or screamed for rescue from flames as fire roared through a Paris hotel today, killing at least 16 people, including six children, officials said.

At least 55 people were injured, 13 seriously, in the fire earlier this morning, that was thought to have started in a first floor breakfast room of the one-star Paris Opera hotel, in the capital’s touristic 9th district, fire officials said.

Many of the guests were African. Paris City Hall had rented 26 of the six-storey hotel’s rooms to temporarily house families from Africa, said fire services spokesman Laurent Vibert. The fire broke out after 2am (1am Irish time), when guests would have been sleeping, spread quickly and caused panic, he said.

“One can imagine young children, parents without their clothes, in the middle of the night, fast asleep, smoke, cries, tears,” he said.

At least one person sought refuge on the burning roof, screaming and waving frantically for rescue as flames poured from windows and fire officers scrambled up ladders. Two others yelled for help from the window of a burning room. A fire officer cradled an infant in his arms as he carried him to safety, amid jets of water from fire hoses that doused the flames.

The injured came from France, the US, Portugal, Senegal, Tunisia, Ukraine and Ivory Coast, Paris police said. Vibert said a Canadian also was slightly injured. The nationalities of the dead were not given.

Fire officials said some people jumped out of windows to escape flames and choking smoke.

Chakib San, who lives in an adjacent building, said he was awakened by cries of “Fire! Fire!”. He said he saw three people jump, including a woman and a child who lay motionless after hitting the ground.

“They were on the ground. They weren’t moving,” he said.

“Everyone was screaming,” he added. “There were bodies in the road.”

The injured were treate and dead bodies temporarily stored in the Galeries Lafayette, one of the busiest and most famous department stores in Paris.

French President Jacques Chirac said it was one of they city’s “most painful catastrophes.”

The fire took more than an hour to bring under control and still smouldered hours later. Some 250 firefighters and 50 fire engines responded.

Nearly all of the six floors were blackened inside.

The dead were recovered “from the road, from inside, just about everywhere,” said Vibert, the fire services spokesman. Another spokesman, Christophe Varennes, said the building’s fire safety measures had been checked as recently as a month ago.

The bodies of four people of African origin were found in the first-floor breakfast room where the fire is thought to have started, said Vibert. It spread very quickly, he added.

“We heard a lot of screams,” said Stanislas Bricage, a Frenchman evacuated from an adjacent hotel – along with about 20 Americans from Wisconsin, wrapped in golden survival blankets.

San, the neighbour, said he spoke to Australians, Canadians and Tunisians who escaped from the hotel. A woman who works in a nearby hotel brought out a ladder and together they used it to rescue a girl from the first floor, said San.

“We got out a little girl. The fire services arrived just afterward,” he said.