Paris apartment fire suspect detained

The fire in the early hours of Wednesday was the deadliest in Paris in 10 years. Two children were among those who died.

The investigation into the fire became a criminal one when it was found that firefighters had been called out twice to the same building. The calls were made two hours apart.

Firefighters were first called to the scene at 2:20 a.m. (0020 UTC) and quickly put out the fire. They were called back again two hours later to extinguish a second, much larger blaze. It took more than 100 firefighters to put it out.

The fire was started on the ground floor of the privately owned and recently renovated five-storey building. Fifteen other buildings nearby were damaged.

The Paris prosecutor's office said a man in his 30s "who might have been at the scene" had been arrested. The arrest had been made after CCTV footage was studied. A man had been seen running away from the building after the fire.

People had jumped out of the blazing building to escape the fire, only to die on the ground, according to witnesses. "I was woken up around 4 a.m. by people screaming for help. They had no choice - either they stayed where they were and died or they got out through the window and they fell," according to baker Tissem Ferjani, who lives on the same street in the 18th District near Montmartre. "Everyone in the district came out to try to help them."

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said authorities were "focusing on the possibility of criminal intent."

"Nothing has been proven yet so we have to be cautious, but for the moment that is the line of investigation that is being looked at very closely," Cazeneuve said.

jm/msh (AFP, AP)