The fire started under the roof around 3:20 a.m., and within minutes a house in the eastern French town of Neuves-Maisons was gone. Five people died, including a couple and three young people, and a sixth escaped onto the roof to raise the alarm.
The blaze broke out in the early hours of Sunday, November 30, 2025, at a house on rue du Capitaine Caillon in Neuves-Maisons, a town southwest of Nancy in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department. The flames took hold in the attic, on the second floor.
Prosecutors in Nancy identified the dead as a couple aged 59 and 60, their 16-year-old son, and two of the children’s friends aged 16 and 20. A 21-year-old was hospitalized in shock; he survived by climbing onto the roof, where he called for help.
Some 70 firefighters, several emergency medical teams and 20 gendarmes were deployed, and the first crews reached the scene in 12 minutes. An investigation for involuntary homicide has been opened, and the prosecutor said the circumstances were not yet clear.
Mayor Pascal Schneider called the fire a nightmare and said it had been ferociously violent. Two families from the town were affected, he said, one of them long settled there. A psychological support unit was set up, and two rooms were opened that afternoon, one for the victims’ families.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez offered his condolences and praised the firefighters and gendarmes who responded.
Sources
- "C'est un cauchemar": cinq morts, dont trois membres d'une même famille, dans un incendie en Meurthe-et-Moselle – ICI
- 5 dead in house fire in eastern France – The Korea Times
Sources
- 5 dead in house fire in eastern France – The Korea Times
- List of building or structure fires – Wikipedia
