Two boys among four dead after ‘e-scooter fire’ tore through 10-storey housing block in France: Twenty-nine hurt

By TOM LAWRENCE

Published: 22:49 BST, 8 June 2025 | Updated: 23:11 BST, 8 June 2025

Two boys are among four people who have died after a fire believed to have been started by an electric scooter tore through a 10-storey housing block in France.

The blaze in Reims, 80 miles north-east of Paris, was so fierce that dozens of firefighters took several hours to get it under control. 

Around 29 people are believed to have been injured in the inferno. 

A 13-year-old jumped to his death from the 4th-floor apartment where the fire started in the early hours of Friday.

A burned body found inside is believed to be that of his older brother, aged 15, said Reims public prosecutor François Schneider.

An 87-year-old woman and her 59-year-old son who lived on the 8th floor suffocated to death in the smoke, he added.

Two people were seriously injured, including the dead boys’ stepfather who was badly burned, and 26 others were treated in hospital for lighter injuries.

Schneider said there is ‘no doubt’ that the blaze was accidental, spreading quickly from the scooter that caught fire for reasons unknown.

He said the first responders described the fire as a ‘scene of war’ as people were fleeing in disarray.

Four people, including two boys, died in a fire in a high-rise apartment building in Reims

The fire is believed to have been caused by an e-bike which was being stored on the 4th floor

62 firefighters battled the huge blaze for more than three hours

Battery fires ‘are extremely difficult to extinguish’ and the prosecutor confirmed that 62 firefighters battled the blaze for more than three hours.

A resident of the block, named Faïza, told a local radio station her family had narrowly escaped after hearing screams and seeing smoke.

She said: ‘The flames took over the building so quickly, we didn’t have time. We went downstairs and went straight out with the children.’

Faïza said she was friends with the mother of the teenagers who died and said that the mother was abroad in French Guiana with her youngest child.

She said she had witnessed the body of the boy who jumped from the building. 

‘His feet were broken. He was burned,’ she said.

‘His eyes were closed. I could see that he no longer felt the pain. You could see that he was no longer there. He wasn’t moving, he wasn’t speaking, his eyes were closed.’

Lithium batteries can cause fires if they overheat, become damaged or are improperly manufactured.

Since January, electric scooters have caused at least 50 fires across France, The Telegraph reported.

Firefighters at the apartment building in Reims, which was described as being like ‘a war zone’

A family home in London was destroyed earlier this year in a fire started by an e-bike 

Earlier this year in the UK, a family’s home was destroyed and their pet dog was killed in a fire started by one of the vehicles. 

Mother Bernadette, 36, her 16-year-old daughter Lashana, and son Tyrone, 20, were luckily not at home and are currently living with a friend.

The terrifying blaze happened at 10.30am when the battery of a ‘top of the range’ £1,500 e-scooter exploded while it was charging underneath the stairs.

Flames tore through the three-bed house in West Hampstead, northwest London, on Monday to completely gut the property and turn the family of three’s belongings into ashes.

Their pet dog of eight years Tuffy is believed to have died immediately when the Rottweiler-Labrador cross-breed became overcome with fumes.

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Two boys among four dead after ‘e-scooter fire’ tore through 10-storey housing block in France: Twenty-nine hurt

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