{"id":168795,"date":"2025-06-08T23:22:21","date_gmt":"2025-06-08T23:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/168795\/"},"modified":"2025-06-08T23:22:21","modified_gmt":"2025-06-08T23:22:21","slug":"two-boys-among-four-dead-after-e-scooter-fire-tore-through-10-storey-housing-block-in-france-twenty-nine-hurt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/168795\/","title":{"rendered":"Two boys among four dead after ‘e-scooter fire’ tore through 10-storey housing block in France: Twenty-nine hurt"},"content":{"rendered":"

By TOM LAWRENCE<\/a> <\/p>\n

Published: 17:49 EDT, 8 June 2025 | Updated: 18:11 EDT, 8 June 2025 <\/p>\n

Two boys are among four people who have died after a fire believed to have been started by an electric scooter<\/a> tore through a 10-storey housing block in France<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The blaze in Reims, 80 miles north-east of Paris, was so fierce that dozens of firefighters took several hours to get it under control.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Around 29 people are believed to have been injured in the inferno.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A 13-year-old jumped to his death from the 4th-floor apartment where the fire started in the early hours of Friday.<\/p>\n

A burned body found inside is believed to be that of his older brother, aged 15, said Reims public prosecutor Fran\u00e7ois Schneider.<\/p>\n

An 87-year-old woman and her 59-year-old son who lived on the 8th floor suffocated to death in the smoke, he added.<\/p>\n

Two people were seriously injured, including the dead boys’ stepfather who was badly burned, and 26 others were treated in hospital for lighter injuries.<\/p>\n

Schneider said there is ‘no doubt’ that the blaze was accidental, spreading quickly from the scooter that caught fire for reasons unknown.<\/p>\n

He said the first responders described the fire as a ‘scene of war’ as people were fleeing in disarray.<\/p>\n

\"Four <\/p>\n

Four people, including two boys, died in a fire in a high-rise\u00a0apartment building in Reims<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The fire is believed to have been caused by an e-bike which was being stored on the 4th floor<\/p>\n

\"62 <\/p>\n

62 firefighters battled the huge blaze for more than three hours<\/p>\n

Battery fires ‘are extremely difficult to extinguish’ and the prosecutor confirmed that 62 firefighters battled the blaze for more than three hours.<\/p>\n

A resident of the block, named Fa\u00efza, told a local radio station her family had narrowly escaped after hearing screams and seeing smoke.<\/p>\n

She said: ‘The flames took over the building so quickly, we didn’t have time. We went downstairs and went straight out with the children.’<\/p>\n

Fa\u00efza said she was friends with the mother of the teenagers who died and said that the mother was abroad in French Guiana with her youngest child.<\/p>\n

She said she had witnessed the body of the boy who jumped from the building.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘His feet were broken. He was burned,’ she said.<\/p>\n

‘His eyes were closed. I could see that he no longer felt the pain. You could see that he was no longer there. He wasn’t moving, he wasn’t speaking, his eyes were closed.’<\/p>\n

Lithium batteries can cause fires if they overheat, become damaged or are improperly manufactured.<\/p>\n

Since January, electric scooters have caused at least 50 fires across France, The Telegraph reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Firefighters <\/p>\n

Firefighters at the apartment building in Reims, which was described as being like ‘a war zone’<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A family home in London was destroyed earlier this year in a fire started by an e-bike\u00a0<\/p>\n

Earlier this year in the UK, a family’s home was destroyed and their pet dog was killed in a fire started by one of the vehicles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mother Bernadette, 36, her 16-year-old daughter Lashana, and son Tyrone, 20, were luckily not at home and are currently living with a friend.<\/p>\n

The terrifying blaze happened at 10.30am when the battery of a ‘top of the range’ \u00a31,500 e-scooter exploded while it was charging underneath the stairs.<\/p>\n

Flames tore through the three-bed house in West Hampstead, northwest London, on Monday to completely gut the property and turn the family of three’s belongings into ashes.<\/p>\n

Their pet dog of eight years Tuffy is believed to have died immediately when the Rottweiler-Labrador cross-breed became overcome with fumes.<\/p>\n

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