PARIS (AFP) – A fire overnight from Sunday to yesterday ravaged the roof and bell tower of a town hall in one of Paris’s districts, police and firefighters said.
Nobody was hurt in the fire and its cause was not immediately clear.
Some 150 firefighters took three hours to get the blaze under control in the city’s southeastern 12th district, the fire brigade said.
The fire hit the 36-metre bell tower topping the 19th-century building, fire brigade spokesman Matthieu Lamouliatte said.
Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said: “Uncertainty remains over the stability of the spire, which is still in danger of collapsing.”
“It will probably take several days to assess all of this,” he told the RTL radio broadcaster.
The origin of the fire is not known, but “at this stage, I have no reason to believe that it is criminal”, Nunez said. Lamouliatte told reporters the “the four pillars of the belfry were not affected”, adding Paris architects would examine if there was still a risk the tower could topple over.
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo expressed sadness on Instagram over the “violent fire” at the town hall, which “set its bell tower ablaze and damaged the roof”.
France was shocked in April 2019 when a fire severely damaged one of its greatest landmarks, the Notre Dame cathedral, and toppled its 19th-Century spire.
After a half-decade restoration, the cathedral reopened at the end of last year, complete with a new spire.
