Fire ravages iconic French radio building

A fire broke out on Friday on the seventh floor of the “Maison de la radio” (“Radio house”), a vast circular building in Paris housing several media operations.

Firefighters said the blaze started on the seventh floor, which is currently under reconstruction, and employees were quickly evacuated from the building.

Two radio stations, France Info and France Inter, stopped transmission due to the blaze but restarted shortly afterwards.

Fire service chief Gabriel Plus told reporters: “I can confirm that at the moment I'm speaking, there are no victims of the blaze.”

“The fire has not been extinguished, but it has been contained where it started. There is therefore no risk of it spreading to the rest of the floor,” Plus said.

“We don't yet know how bad the damage is, but it seems considerable,” French President Francois Hollande told reporters at a joint news conference with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The fire is an “extremely traumatic event” in central Paris, Hollande said, adding that it was a “symbolic” building.

“I am watching this very carefully,” stressed Hollande.

Thick black smoke was seen billowing from the building, an iconic structure in the plush 16th district of Paris that has been undergoing significant renovation.

Plus told AFP that 16 fire engines had been dispatched and that they were setting up a command post on site.