image: a burnt down building

Coming back from work yesterday evening, I saw a huge column of smoke over the town. My initial reaction was “oh, sh*t, that’s my flat”, but I soon realised that the fire was way beyond my flat, and huge.

Two buildings were burning. A day of hot sun and strong wind was not good time to control a large fire. Unfortunately, both buildings, both night clubs, were completely destroyed. Fortunately, no one was injured, although some unlucky people living in the flats above lost everything.

The fire was so big that turntable fire engines wandered the town, sometimes raising ladders to examine roofs, I presume to check no burning embers, blown by the wind, had landed, caught, spread the fire.

There are news stories here (French) and here (German).