PARIS, Feb 2 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A fire broke out Saturday at a retirement home in Bouffemont, Val-d’Oise department, leaving three senior residents dead and nine others injured, French news channel BFMTV reported.
The blaze occurred at around 7:15 a.m. local time on the third floor of the facility, BFMTV said, citing the Prefecture of Val-d’Oise.
According to the news channel, the three victims were residents aged 68, 85 and 96, the Val-d’Oise prefecture said, adding that they died as a result of smoke inhalation.
The nine injured included seven residents and two staff members who inhaled the smoke, the prefecture added. Eight of them were transported to various hospitals in the Paris region.
“This is a serious event for our town,” Mayor Michel Lacoux said, speaking to BFM TV. “It seems to have been an accident.”
Lacoux said the fire was under control. It is thought to have started in a laundry room before spreading to part of the third floor, he said.
Commandant Adrien Ponin-Sinapayen, spokesman for France’s civil defense agency, said the fire was extinguished after 140 firefighters were deployed to the scene.
An investigation is ongoing to determine the cause of the fire, but the authorities said that the fire was probably accidental. — NNN-AGENCIES
