Fire swept through a central Paris hotel filled with immigrants and tourists early yesterday, killing at least 17 people, five of them children, and injuring more than 50 others in one of the deadliest fires in the French capital in 20 years.
Witnesses and firefighters said some guests leapt from windows to escape the blaze, which destroyed the six-story, one-star Paris-Opera hotel, located behind the upmarket Galeries Lafayette department store and near the Opera Garnier.
As an investigation got under way, a police source said the cause of the blaze at the hotel -- used both by ordinary tourists and as temporary housing for needy families -- was "undoubtedly accidental."
Investigators at the scene "have not found, according to their preliminary tests, any evidence that would lead us to think this was a criminal fire," the source said.
Alfred Millot, head of Galeries Lafayette's fire service, saw hotel residents jump from the upper floors and throw their children through windows in desperate efforts to save their lives.
"With our own equipment, we started fighting the fire from the ground floor. I came running and people were already jumping through the windows. I saw bodies, windows in flames, people crying out for help," he said.
"It's hard in that kind of situation to tell people to calm down. They jumped. People on the first floor threw their children out the windows," Millot added.
Several prostitutes working in small hotels in the area also witnessed the fire.
One of them, Laure, said she heard "screams and cries for help" from the guests who were sleeping when the fire broke out, some of whom jumped from their windows.
She said that she and several others helped some women in the hotel to escape through a skylight window.
The bodies of several victims were found in the rooms, and one firefighter was seen struggling to bring the body of a woman down a ladder.
French President Jacques Chirac called the blaze "one of the most painful catastrophes that has ever plunged Paris into mourning," adding: "This drama gives us all a feeling of horror and has deeply upset us."
Five of the 17 dead were children, including one baby. Thirteen of the more than 50 others injured suffered serious injuries, said fire service spokesman Captain Laurent Vibert. Two firefighters were slightly hurt.
Emergency services said the death toll could still rise. One official said the number of dead would have been much lower had residents remained in their rooms and not tried to flee the flames.
Among the injured were French, Senegalese, Portuguese, Ivorian, American, Ukrainian and Tunisian nationals. No information was immediately available about the identities of the dead.
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