French cities often sad witnesses to deadly blazes

PARIS, Aug 26 (AFP) – A fire swept through a residential building in Paris’s 13ème arrondissement early Friday, killing at least 17 people, making it one of the deadliest since 1970.

Following is a chronology of the other worst French fires:

— November 1, 1970: Blaze sweeps through the packed ‘Cinq-sept’ nightclub in Saint-Laurent-du-Pont near Grenoble, killing 146 revellers, the most lethal fire in France since the start of the 20th century.

— August 18, 1972: Twelve elderly people are killed in a fire at a retirement home in Ris-Orangis, south of Paris. Worn-out electrical wiring was to blame.

— February 7, 1973: Secondary school fire in Paris’ 19ème arrondissement, lit by teenagers who thought the building was empty, kills 20, including 16 children.

— August 11, 1976: A fire at the Hotel d’Amérique in central Paris kills 13 people, most of them immigrants.

— April 22, 1980: Suspected arson attack kills 32 at an old people’s home in Saint-Jean-de-Losne in eastern France.

— May 25, 1982: Medical school blaze kills 24 in the Aire-sur-Adour, in the Aquitaine region of southwestern France.

— January 9, 1985: 24 elderly people, most bedridden, perish in a fire set off by mistake at an old people’s home in Granvilliers, northern France.

— March 8, 1989: 15 die and 10 are injured in an arson attack at building in Belfort, eastern France.

— June 27, 1991: A fire at a spa in Barbaton-les-Thermes, southern France, leaves 21 dead and 11 injured after an accident during renovation work.

— June 25, 1993: A psychiatric clinic in Bruz, northwest France, is destroyed in a blaze that kills 19 patients and a caregiver and injures 35 others.

— December 7, 1998: Thirteen elderly people die when their retirement home north of Paris catches on fire, and 22 more are injured.

— March 24, 1999: A Belgian lorry catches fire for unexplained reasons in a tunnel under Mont Blanc, southeast France, causing an inferno that kills 39 people.

— January 2, 2002: 12 elderly people die in a blaze at another retirement home, this time in Saint-Bonnet-de-Mure, southern France.

— April 15, 2005: Fire kills 20 including 10 children and injures dozens more in a hotel in the central Paris Opéra district.

Subject: French news, fire, blaze, fatalities