200 firefighters battle major fire in Paris
Smoke billows across the Paris skyline as a “major fire” burns at a recycling plant close to the Tribunal de Paris courthouse (R) in the 17th arrondissement, in the north of Paris, on April 7, 2025. A thick black cloud of smoke could be seen from across the French capital as firefighters battled the blaze that ripped through the Syctom recycling plant. Some 60 fire trucks and 200 firefighters were tackling the fire at one of the city’s biggest recycling plants the fire brigade said. (Photo by Michel RUBINEL / AFP)
PARIS, France – A major fire broke out in Paris on Monday close to a new court complex designed by Renzo Piano, sending smoke across the city and prompting authorities to urge the public to stay away from the zone.
A thick black cloud could be seen across the French capital as firefighters battled the blaze that ripped through one of the city’s biggest recycling plants.
The fire brigade said around 60 fire trucks and 200 firefighters were at the scene, adding that there were no victims.
Flames lit up the night sky and authorities closed part of the main ring road around Paris to allow access to the burning building for fire-fighting vehicles.”
The building is completely gutted and destroyed,” Geoffrey Boulard, mayor for the affected 17th arrondissement, told BFM television, but all staff inside had been evacuated.”
Fire fighters arrived very quickly, but the fire happened underground and then spread through the building,” Boulard said. Geoffrey Boulard, mayor for the affected 17th arrondissement, told BFM television.
Paris fire
The fire at the Syctom recycling plant was right next to Paris’s main court complex, whose centrepiece is a glass skyscraper designed by Italian architect Piano and inaugurated in 2018.
The plant, which started operations in 2019, was designed to handle household waste for nearly a million Paris residents, according to city authorities.
“The most important thing tonight is that a disaster on this scale did not have any human damage,” the site’s president Corentin Duprey told BFM.
Geoffrey Boulard, mayor for the affected 17th arrondissement, told BFM televisionHe said 31 employees were present when the blaze started in a recycling zone in a basement “where there was the most combustible material”.
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