A fire broke out in the basement of a building on rue Ambroise-Thomas, in the city center of Metz, this Sunday, shortly before 4 a.m.
It was the municipal police officers, on patrol, who noticed a significant release of thick smoke from an air vent. They notified the firefighters. The fire started at 2e basement of a four-story building, not far from the Hisler bookstore and the covered market.
The residents of the building, around twenty people, were evacuated and brought to safety. They were housed at city hall and will have to be rehoused. Four of them were taken to hospital with minor injuries.
Their condition did not cause concern in the morning. At the height of the intervention, 46 fire vehicles, or 90 men, were mobilized.
According to information from Républicain Lorrain, the fire did not spread to the rest of the building but smoke was released in the building's ducts. They are also visible from the A31 motorway. A security perimeter was set up during the intervention. The origin of the fire was, at this stage, still unknown.
