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THE FRENCH Government is to carry out a review of social housing policy after a string of multi-fatality fires in run-down buildings housing immigrant families.
Forty-eight people have died in three separate fires in apartment blocks in Paris in the space of five months, prompting criticism over the poor conditions and overcrowding in social housing.
In response, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said the Government will assess social housing and close down buildings which were potentially unsafe. A new programme to build more social housing is also planned.
The move comes after 24 people, mainly African immigrants, died in two recent fires. The first, at a seven-floor apartment block in southeast Paris, happened in the early hours of 26 August. More than 200 firefighters attended the scene after a fire broke out in the stairwell and spread through the building. Fire crews helped most of the 130 residents to evacuate and brought the blaze under control within two hours. Seventeen people, most of whom were children, perished and 30 others were injured.
In a separate incident, seven immigrants died in a blaze at an apartment in the Marais area of the capital on 29 August. Firefighters controlled the blaze within 90 minutes.
These latest tragedies came four months after a similar incident at the Paris-Opera hotel, in which 24 people died and about 50 others were injured (FP&FEJ, May 2005, p.5). This building was used by social services
as temporary housing for immigrant families. The Paris-Opera blaze has also prompted the Government to draw up plans to strengthen the national safety regulations for hotels.
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