Apartment inferno kills 10; deadliest Paris fire since 2005

PARIS -- Paris' deadliest fire in over a decade killed at least 10 people Tuesday as flames engulfed a nine-story apartment building, sending residents to the roof and clambering across balconies to escape.

A 40-year-old woman who lived in the building, said to have a history of psychiatric problems, was arrested nearby and held on suspicion of having set the fire not long before. French police opened a criminal investigation for voluntary arson resulting in death.

Multiple neighbors said they heard the suspect and her neighbor, an off-duty firefighter, arguing over the woman's music before the fire broke out.

Police responding to the dispute stopped by the woman's apartment. The firefighter and his girlfriend told officers they were leaving to sleep elsewhere in peace and thought the neighbor had lost her mind and one day there would be an accident because of her, according to a police report seen by The Associated Press.

In an interview with Le Parisien newspaper, the 22-year-old firefighter said he returned to the building a few minutes later, shortly after midnight, hoping the woman had gone. Instead, he ran into her in the stairwell, which was already beginning to smell of smoke.

"She wished me good luck, telling me that I loved flames," he recalled in the interview.

Another resident later told him the woman put paper and wood in front of his apartment door, the firefighter told Le Parisien, which did not give his name.

Survivors described a chaos of smoke and flames, and the young firefighter said he ran upstairs to try and evacuate the building. One neighbor recalled clambering out of her eighth-floor apartment and over balconies to reach safety.

"I climbed across several balconies, with nothing beneath, and then was backed into a corner. There were people climbing hand-over-hand to get to where I was and escape the flames," said a resident identified only as Claire, her eyes wide with shock soon after her rescue.

Another resident, an off-duty police officer, threw on clothes and rang doorbell after doorbell, trying desperately to alert his neighbors.

"I couldn't save everyone. I can't forgive myself," the man identified as Fabrice told France Info radio, adding smoke and flames prevented him from climbing higher than the fourth floor.

Jacqueline Ravier, who lives on the same street as the apartment building, described seeing a young man blackened by smoke and a woman motionless on the ground.

For hours, she said, flames shot out from the top of the building as smoke-covered victims fled.

Interior Minister Christophe Castaner spoke to reporters at the scene Tuesday morning, as plumes of smoke speckled the sky.

"I want to salute the huge mobilization of the Paris firefighters," he said. "More than 250 people arrived immediately and, throughout the night, saved over 50 people in truly exceptional conditions."

It was the deadliest fire in Paris since the April 2005 hotel fire near the capital's famed Opera killed 24 people. More than 30 people were being treated for "relatively" light injuries, Castaner said. Among the injured were at least eight firefighters.