Overview

• The fire broke out around 00:30 on June 6 in a fourth-floor apartment of an 11-story building in Reims’s Croix-Rouge neighborhood and spread rapidly up the façade.
• Four people, including at least one child, died and another child remains missing while two adults are in critical condition and about a dozen others were treated for smoke inhalation and burns.
• Prosecutor François Schneider said preliminary findings point to an accidental origin likely linked to a lithium-ion battery from an electric scooter.
• Emergency services mobilized 62 firefighters, 15 fire engines and more than 40 police officers, with national police on patrol providing the first evacuations.
• The tower had recently undergone thermal renovation and was deemed in good condition before the blaze, and the Croix-Rouge has opened shelters for displaced families.