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Paris Fire Kills 17, Half Are Children

Posted on: Friday, 26 August 2005, 00:00 CDT

PARIS - A blaze raced through a Paris apartment building housing African immigrants early Friday, killing 17 people, at least half of them children, officials said.

The fire also injured about 30 people, most of them from Mali. It was the second blaze since April to take a devastating toll on African migrants in Paris.

One resident of the seven-story building in southeastern Paris described being awakened by cries from children and adults, then rushing to his window on the building's second floor.

People "jumped out the windows, they didn't care about dying," Oumar Cisse said.

The fire broke out shortly after midnight in the stairwell of a building, officials said. About 210 firefighters worked for an hour and a half before bringing the blaze under control.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy went to the scene of the blaze, on a major boulevard in the city's 13th district, his ministry said. Police said they were trying to determine what caused the blaze.

About 100 children and 30 adults lived in the building, officials said. They were housed by a group affiliated with France's Emmaus association for the French state, said Serge Blisko, the district's mayor. Emmaus works to improve the lives of the impoverished.

The building was "in a mediocre state," he told France-Info radio.

Cisse, a 71-year-old from Mali, said the building was infested by rats and mice and that there were cracks in the walls and lead in the paint.

"It was totally unhealthy," he said.

The residents included people from Mali, Senegal, Gambia and Tunisia, Cisse said.

Resident Sory Cassama, who lives in the building with his wife and 12 children, said he was asleep when a daughter knocked on the door. Their living room had filled with smoke.

"There was so much smoke in the stairwell, but we were still able to get out," said Cassama, who said his wife was treated for smoke inhalation.

In April, 24 people were killed in a hotel fire in Paris capital - many of them children. Most were African immigrants and other people without means who were lodged there by authorities.

At the time, officials said a night watchman's girlfriend may have accidentally caused that fire by placing candles on the floor to set the scene for a romantic tryst but then leaving in a rage because he was drunk.

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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