Major fire breaks out in building in central Paris

The Guardian
Sat, 20 Nov 2021 16:53 UTC

Fire crews are attempting to put out the blaze on boulevard des Capucines, near the Place de L'Opéra

A large fire has broken out in a building on boulevard des Capucines, near the Place de L'Opéra in central Paris, sending clouds of smoke rising into the air. People were told to avoid the area, which is popular with tourists, as fire crews tackled the blaze on Saturday.

"Firemen are intervening," the préfecture de Police said in a statement on Twitter.

It was not immediately clear what had caused the fire. There were no reports of any injuries.

Comment: Other fires reported in the news recently:

• Massive fire breaks out on the roof of New York City hospital (10th September)
• Major factory fire in France forces residents to stay indoors amidst toxic smoke risk, small explosions reported (10th September)
• Explosions and large industrial fire in Kidderminster, England - nearby residents evacuated (8th September)
• Covid hospital bursts into flames after explosion in North Macedonia, at least 10 dead, dozens injured (8th September)
• Massive gas explosion blows off front of residential building in Russia, 2 killed, 13 in hospital (8th September)
• Massive fire engulfs high-rise residential building in Milan (29th August)
• Huge fire and explosion at industrial estate in UK's Leamington Spa (27th August)
• Huge explosion at Kazakh military base munitions store,12 dead, hundreds evacuated (27th August)
• Fire tears through Chinese skyscraper as debris falls onto streets below (27th August)
• Passenger bus explodes in central Russian city of Voronezh (12th August)

See also: Massive mystery explosion obliterates apartment block in Paris (2016)