Three killed in building fire in French Riviera city

Three people died in a fire that broke out early Sunday in a residential building in the centre of the French Rivieracity of Grasse, firefighters said.

Three others were seriously injured and four had lighter injuries, they said, adding that the fire had been extinguished.

“The condition of the victims can always change,” Aymeric Soufflet from the firefighting service told AFP.

The origin of the fire in the historic centre of Grasse, considered the world’s perfume capital, was not immediately clear. It affected the top three floors of the five-storey building, whose facade was partially blackened by the flames.

“The fire mainly affected the stairwell,” Jean-Christophe Demarte, head of the rescue operation, said, adding the flats mostly sustained smoke damage.

Firefighters were alerted by local residents at around 3:00 am (0100 GMT). They found the body of a person who had jumped out in front of the edifice and two other corpses inside.

“An alarm started beeping and then I heard cries,” said Martine, a woman who lives in an adjoining building and who only gave one name.

“A woman cried out for help shouting ‘Fire!’ and asked me to call the fire service, which is what I did. A man from the floor above tried to come down to avoid the flames but he fell,” she added.

The building is in a square in the old town which is lively in summer and popular with tourists for its restaurants, fountain and the small pedestrian streets running off it.

The mayor Jerome Viaud said the building did not have a structural problem but that renovation works on the facade and communal areas were planned in October.

“Today it’s too early to say what was the cause of the fire, if it’s criminal or accidental,” he said.

An investigation is under way to determine the cause, the city’s prosecutor said.