Seven children, aged between 2 and 14, and their mother died last night in a fire that broke out in their home in Charly-sur-Marne, about a hundred kilometers east of Paris, the fire department announced today and the gendarmerie.
The father of the blended family, who suffered serious burns, was removed from the home, which is located in the center of this community of about 2.600 residents, and taken to the hospital, the fire department and the gendarmerie added.
The children, 5 girls and 2 boys, and their parents were sleeping on the second floor of their maisonette when the fire broke out, the gendarmerie said. The fire service was alerted at 00:52 local time (01:52 Greek time) by neighbors.
Authorities are investigating the cause of the fire.
Four of the children came from the mother's first marriage, the gendarmerie added.
The fire was extinguished in the early morning, again according to the gendarmerie.
The most recent such tragedy occurred on the night of December 15-16, when 6 people, 4 of whom were children, died in a fire in a seven-story apartment building in a popular district under renovation near Lyon, in the southeast. France.
Source: KYPE