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12 killed - including five Americans - in train fire in FranceThe Associated Press NANCY, France - A fire on an overnight train in eastern France filled a sleeping car with smoke yesterday, killing 12 people - including five Americans from the same family - and driving panicked passengers to smash windows and jump to safety. The train, like others in Europe, had no smoke detectors even though cigarette smoking is allowed in designated cars. Fatal rail accidents are rare in France, where trains are known for speed, safety and efficiency. Accidents, however, are not unknown in Europe: A high-speed train derailed in Germany in 1998, killing 101 people. Yesterday’s blaze, which also injured nine people, was initially blamed on an electrical short-circuit. But the French rail authority SNCF said that was premature and the cause was under investigation. The owner of the sleeping car, German national railroad Deutsche Bahn, said the fire apparently started in the compartment of a train attendant. Smoke was blamed for the deaths. The fire began shortly after 2 a.m. as the train with 150 passengers passed through the city of Nancy on its way to Munich, Germany, according to SNCF. The train had left Paris three hours earlier. Richard Lankford of the U.S. Embassy in Paris refused to release the American victims' names pending notification of their families. Authorities in Meurthe-et-Moselle prefecture all but one of the injured was treated at a hospital and released. A train worker alerted authorities at about 2:15 a.m. when he spotted smoke pouring from a car as the train passed the Nancy station. Flames shot 9 feet into the air, and thick, black smoke billowed out of the car's windows. Survivors told of panic inside the train as screaming passengers escaped by breaking through the car's windows and climbing out once the train had stopped. Fatal train accidents have hit France in the past. In 1997, 13 people were killed when a train in southwestern France burst into flames after crashing into a truck filled with gasoline.
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