The Associated Press
ROUBAIX, France — A fire broke out in a run-down apartment building that mainly housed immigrants Sunday in northern France, killing five people and injuring 10, local authorities said.
Police in the town of Roubaix said they had taken the owner of the building into custody.
The fire started shortly before dawn in a former bar converted into small apartments inhabited mainly by immigrants of African origin, said Jean-Michel Michalak, deputy director of the regional government office in the nearby city of Lille.
The only staircase had caught fire, trapping residents upstairs, according to the regional fire and emergency service.
Five people, including a child, were killed, and 10 were injured, five seriously, according to the emergency service and the local government office.
A fire broke out in the same building on March 23, but was brought under control before it could cause widespread damage, Lille public prosecutor Philippe Lemaire said.
Judicial police have begun an investigation to determine the origin of the blaze, which was extinguished by a team of 35 firefighters.
“The fire started on the ground floor where we found one of the victims,” Col. Philippe Vanberselaert, head of the regional fire and emergency service, told LCI television.
“It is unfortunately a classic case in these slightly dilapidated houses where the only staircase catches fire and people are trapped upstairs. They could not get out and it was the smoke and gases from the fire that choked them,” he added.
Several fires swept through decrepit housing in Paris last year, killing about 50 people, most of them African immigrants.