Deadly Blaze Guts Paris Hotel

People screamed for help and jumped from windows early Friday as a fire swept through a hotel used by the city to house needy African families. At least 20 people were killed, half of them children, officials said.

"When the firefighters came in the street the fire was very, very big and extremely hot intensity of fire and suddenly the fire raised through the floors very quickly," said fire services spokesman Laurent Vibert.

More than 50 people were injured, 11 seriously. The blaze was thought to have started in a first-floor breakfast room of the one-star Paris Opera hotel in the capital's 9th district, a popular tourist area, fire officials said.

Eight hours later, rescue workers were still pulling bodies from inside the building.

More than 70 people were staying in the hotel, reports CBS News Correspondent Elizabeth Palmer. A few of them were tourists, but most of the dead and injured were African immigrants.

The city had rented rooms in the six-story hotel to temporarily house nine people from Africa, and state services housed 65 others without means, including some seeking asylum.

President Jacques Chirac labeled the fire one of Paris' "most painful catastrophes."

The fire broke out after 2 a.m., when guests would have been sleeping, and spread quickly.

"One can imagine young children, parents without their clothes, in the middle of the night, fast asleep, smoke, cries, tears," Vibert said.

At least one person sought refuge on the burning roof, yelling and waving frantically for help as flames poured from windows. A firefighter cradled an infant in his arms as he carried him to safety.

Among the injured were visitors from the United States, Canada, Portugal, Senegal, Tunisia, Ukraine and Ivory Coast, police said. The nationalities of the dead were not given.
"We heard a lot of screams," said Stanislas Bricage, a Frenchman evacuated from an adjacent hotel along with about 20 Americans from Wisconsin.

Chakib San, who lives in an adjacent building, said he was awakened by cries of "Fire! Fire!" He said he saw three people jump from lower stories, including a woman and a child who lay motionless after hitting the ground.

"They were on the ground. They weren't moving," he said.

A woman who works in a nearby hotel brought out a ladder and together they used it to rescue a girl, San said.

The bodies of four people of African origin were found in the first-floor breakfast room where the fire is thought to have started, Vibert said.

The dead were recovered "from the road, from inside, just about everywhere," said Vibert. The bodies were brought temporarily to the Galeries Lafayette, one of Paris' busiest and most famous department stores.

The fire took more than an hour to bring under control after 250 firefighters and 50 fire engines responded.

Another spokesman, Christophe Varennes, said the building's fire safety measures had been checked as recently as a month ago.