Posted: April 8, 2025 at 08:45
A “major fire” in the north of Paris has sent smoke swallowing in a part of the French capital. (Photo: AFP)
PARIS – A major fire broke out in Paris on Monday near a new legal complex designed by Renzo Piano, sending smoke across the city and encouraging the authorities to exhort the public to stay far from the area.
A thick black cloud could be seen through the French capital while the firefighters were fighting the fire which tore one of the largest recycling factories in the city.
About 60 firefighters and 200 firefighters were on the scene, said the firefighter, adding that there were no victims.
The flames illuminated the night sky and the authorities closed part of the main road around Paris to allow access to the fire building for fire -fighting vehicles.
“The building is completely eviscerated and destroyed,” Geoffrey Boulard, mayor of the 17th arrondissement affected, at BFM Television, told BFM Television, but all the staff inside had been evacuated.
“The firefighters arrived very quickly, but the fire occurred underground and then spread in the building,” said Boulard.
The fire of the Syctom recycling plant was right next to the main complex of the Paris Court, the centerpiece of which is a glass skyscraper designed by the Italian architect piano and inaugurated in 2018.
The factory, which began operations in 2019, was designed to manage household waste for nearly a million residents in Paris, according to city authorities.
“The most important thing this evening is that a disaster on this scale had no human damage,” said the president of the site, Corentin Duprey, BFM.
Geoffrey Boulard, mayor of the 17th arrondissement affected, told BFM Television, 31 employees were present when the fire started in a recycling area in a basement “where there was the most fuel equipment”.
