A violent fire broke out in an apartment in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, in the Belleville district, just beside the park of the same name. The blaze started on the 12th and top floor of a building on rue des Couronnes, shortly before 11 p.m. A dramatic plume of black smoke, visible from several neighborhoods across the capital, quickly alerted residents. The 80-square-meter apartment was completely destroyed and three people were lightly injured.
The standout feature of this blaze is what was inside the dwelling. Mortars and fireworks were stored there, triggering a series of detonations that turned the fire into a spectacle as unexpected as it was worrying. Sparks and rockets were shooting from the windows, filmed by numerous witnesses and widely shared on social media.
According to residents questioned by Actu17, the apartment from which the fire started was empty when the flames erupted. One resident says the dwelling housed a stock of pyrotechnic items meant for an upcoming wedding.
Under the heat, these devices began to catch fire and then explode one after another. The blasts, heard throughout the neighborhood, initially sowed confusion among residents who had come to watch from their balconies. Storing such products in a residential building remains strictly regulated, and an investigation will determine the exact conditions in which these mortars were kept in the dwelling.
Throughout the operation, a large security perimeter was established around the building by national and municipal police. The cordon was all the more necessary because responders could not predict when residual explosions would occur, as long as the stock of mortars had not been completely spent. Firefighters therefore advanced cautiously, with every remaining pyrotechnic device still able to go off without warning.
At this stage, there has been no lasting road closures or shutdown of the Couronnes metro station (Line 2), despite its close proximity. The area perimeter was rolled back once the intervention concluded, allowing about a hundred evacuated residents to gradually return home. The situation continues to be monitored, as a incident of this scale on the top floor could prompt facade safety precautions in the days ahead.
The toll evolved throughout the night. While initial reports indicated no casualties, emergency services ultimately transported three people with minor injuries to the hospital. About a hundred residents of the building and neighboring structures were evacuated as a precaution to prevent any poisoning from toxic fumes.
The sapeurs-pompiers de Paris mobilised substantial resources, with 90 firefighters and 23 units deployed on the scene. According to information from Actu Paris, the flames were brought under control shortly after midnight, although crews were still on site tackling the fire at that moment. No other flats in the building sustained damage.
The cause of the blaze was not yet known on Wednesday morning. An investigation has been opened to determine the exact circumstances surrounding the fire, in this bustling Belleville district served by the Couronnes metro station, on the border of the 11th and 20th arrondissements.
The district, perched on one of the capital’s highest hills, remains one of the liveliest areas in eastern Paris. Such incidents are thankfully rare here. Most of the residents who were evacuated were able to return home once the operation ended and the security perimeter was lifted.
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