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Death of 17 Immigrants in Paris Fire Prompts Broad Inquiry

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By KATRIN BENNHOLD
Published: August 27, 2005
PARIS, Aug. 26 - After a fire here killed 14 children and 3 adults 
early Friday in a run-down apartment building packed with African 
immigrants, French officials promised a systematic investigation of 
similar temporary housing. 

The fire was the second in four months to strike substandard housing in 
Paris. In April, 24 people died in a similar blaze that brought new 
attention to the plight of immigrants who live in overcrowded and 
decrepit conditions while waiting sometimes for decades for subsidized 
housing.

"It's an extremely heavy death toll," said Interior Minister Nicolas 
Sarkozy, one of the first senior officials to arrive on the scene 
Friday morning. Blaming overcrowding for the fire, he pledged a 
thorough investigation of such buildings.

President Jacques Chirac issued a statement saying, "This dreadful 
disaster plunges all of France into mourning."

The cause has not been officially determined. The fire broke out 
shortly after midnight in a stairwell and took three hours to contain, 
according to emergency officials.

Neighbors said that about 100 children and 30 adults were living in the 
building, in the 13th Arrondissement, in southeastern Paris, most of 
them from Mali, in West Africa. Twenty-three people were injured and 
hospitalized, and others were given shelter in a sports complex.

Long after other survivors had been escorted away, Moussa Touré, 47, 
remained, shaking his head and staring at the scorched third-floor 
window of the apartment where he had lived since 1992.

Mr. Touré did not mourn for himself; his 2 wives and 13 children all 
escaped, helped by firefighters who lifted them out of their smoke-
filled bedroom through the window. 

He said he was thinking of his neighbor Dramane Diarra, another Malian, 
who is hospitalized with serious injuries after jumping out of his 
window to escape the flames. Mr. Diarra lost all six of his children in 
the blaze, Mr. Touré said.

"It is so tragic," he said. "Yesterday they were still alive, and today 
they are dead. Their lives are wasted."

Mr. Touré said he remembered the intense smell of smoke and the crying 
of children clutching their parents and pressing wet cloths to their 
faces. Then his voice turned bitter. "Why does it have to come to this 
before anyone cares about what is going on here?" he said. "Our 
problems didn't just start today."

The building is owned by the government and managed by the charity 
France Europe Habitat. Its interior was described by residents and 
neighbors as unbearable. Residents were told that they would be housed 
here only provisionally, until city officials could find them permanent 
subsidized apartments.

In Mr. Touré's case, that housing application has been pending for 13 
years. 

Jean-Claude Amara, a spokesman for Droits Devant, or Rights First, a 
human rights advocacy group in Paris, said the building was inadequate 
for long-term accommodation. "This house should never have been 
anything but a very temporary interim solution," said Mr. Amara, who 
said he had seen the interior of the building.

The insulation was inadequate, he said, there were problems with the 
plumbing and the electricity, and the paint on the walls contained lead.

Official figures on the number of provisional housing facilities for 
immigrants awaiting permanent state-subsidized accommodations were not 
available on Friday. But Mr. Amara estimated there were hundreds of 
such buildings. 

Demands for subsidized housing have surged in the past decade. 
According to the Paris city hall, 102,500 applications are pending, 
compared with about 85,000 10 years ago. Last year, 100,000 applicants 
competed for only 10,000 units. 

Under Mayor Bertrand Delanoë, the pool of subsidized housing has 
significantly increased, but it is still lagging behind demand. Today, 
about 3,500 subsidized housing units are being added to the pool every 
year, an increase of 125 percent compared with the years preceding Mr. 
Delanoë's election in 2001.

The shortage has hit immigrants and poor French people alike as rents 
in Paris continue to climb.

But immigrants, who tend to be poorer than French citizens, are more 
likely to be in need of subsidized housing and often face the 
additional difficulty of racial discrimination.

A study of access to public housing in 2001 found that only 58 percent 
of applications by immigrants were successful after six months, 
compared with 75 percent of nonimmigrants. The study, conducted by an 
antidiscrimination group called GELD, was cited in Le Monde on Friday.

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