Reims apartment building cellar fire, Digi Mart USA News (Reims, France): A fire broke out around 3:20 a.m. on the night of Saturday, November 7, to Sunday, November 8, 2026, in the cellar of a 16-story building on rue du Danube in the Europe district of Reims.
Twenty-three firefighters and five response vehicles were deployed to the scene.
As a precaution, about thirty people were evacuated from the building by rescue crews and taken to the Clémentine Danube school, which was temporarily set up as a shelter point.
Zora Olendon said the night began with an unusual sensation. “I was sleeping and I felt heat in my bedroom,” she said.
Alerted by neighbors pounding on doors and shouting that there was a fire, she rushed to wake her mother.
In the panic, the two opened their front door without realizing that smoke had already spread into the common areas. “We were literally choked by the smell.
Black smoke came in, it was horrible,” the young woman said.
The two residents had to wait for rescuers inside their apartment. They placed wet towels under the door to keep smoke from entering further.
Her mother, Virgy Olendo, said she called the fire service twice. Her daughter, very anxious, had a panic attack.
“We didn’t know whether we should leave or what we should do,” said this resident of the fifth floor. The family had moved into the building recently, at the end of June.
On the ninth floor, another resident said he was awakened at 3:20 a.m. by his wife, who had been alerted by a strong smell of burning.
He immediately sheltered his children and wife in the room farthest from the front door.
Firefighters asked them to remain in the apartment while the fire was extinguished. But the wait was difficult for the family: his wife is eight months pregnant, one of their children has asthma, and his wife also suffers from asthma.
The man said he felt dizziness and abdominal pain. He regretted not being able to leave more quickly and believes his family should have been prioritized for assistance.
According to his account, they waited nearly two hours in a bedroom with only one window open.
Beyond the fire, this resident blamed ongoing construction work in the building. Windows and balconies have been blocked by site installations, limiting ventilation and escape options.
“For a month we have had no living room where we can open our windows to air it out,” he said. He announced plans to mobilize other tenants to launch a petition and ask the Foyer Rémois to speed up the work.
Other residents also described recurring problems in the building. Anthony Mandel said it was the second time a fire had broken out in a building cellar, and mentioned access doors that remain open and regular intrusions.
For now, the exact circumstances of the fire’s origin remain undetermined.
