“It was the smoke that woke me up. » This man, who lives on the 5th floor of this building located allée du Moutier in Saint-Ouen (Seine-Saint-Denis), had a somewhat rude awakening this Thursday, January 2, 2025. Employee of Thierry Marx's broth, he was on rest after working for New Year's Eve and January 1st. In a hurry, he tries to catch the family cat, in vain, and leaves his home.
He notices that the flames are coming from the apartment just below, on the fourth floor. The fire broke out there around 11 a.m. And quickly grew throughout the apartment, before spreading to the balconies of the fifth and sixth floors.
The building was evacuated by firefighters, who had already brought the flames under control by 1 p.m. The Paris fire brigade reminds everyone of the need to “avoid at all costs increasing the number of uncontrolled storage spaces on balconies because this facilitates the spread of a fire from one floor to another”.
“It’s awful,” confides Xavier. It was at his house that the fire started. “I have a somewhat cluttered apartment, I had a candle on a plate on my coffee table. The candle fell on some newspapers and laundry, and it was gone right away. I lost everything,” says the one who was pulled out by the firefighters.
Semiso, the lessor of the building, has already offered him a rehousing solution, which he accepted. The other tenants should be able to return to their homes during the day.
The Bouillon du Coq employee was able, for his part, to briefly go up with the firefighters to take a tour of his home. “More fear than harm. There's some soot, it's smoky, but nothing serious. And the cat is alive. He was under the bed, safe and sound. » Enough to reassure his teenager, her eyes reddened. Who gets angry at the tenant on the 4th floor.
Several angry neighbors spoke of a man with fragile health and a very cluttered apartment. “We alerted several times but no one did anything, and that’s it,” annoys a resident, shopping bag under her arm.
Another fire, in similar circumstances, affected the first floor of the building two years ago.
