Paris’ oldest food market, Le Marché Couvert des Enfants Rouges, has been destroyed by fire.
The fire was reported at 4.15am on Monday, and 150 firefighters using 50 vehicles were sent to the scene, near apartment buildings in the fashionable Haut Marais district in the city’s third arrondissement. The cause was not yet known.
Lieutenant Colonel Pierre de Bouvier, of the city’s fire service, said: “There is nothing left – all the stalls have burned down.” One firefighter suffered minor injuries during the operation to control the flames.
Ariel Weil, the mayor of Paris Centre, said the market had been “totally gutted” and about 20 traders had lost their stalls. He said: “Fire under control but market completely destroyed. We’re devastated.”
He added: “There’s a lot of emotion and grief, but also a sense that we’ve escaped the worst.”
In the early hours of Monday, he said the market’s steel structure had partially collapsed, and one firefighter had suffered minor injuries, adding: “We have the fire under control, so it won’t spread beyond the covered market.”
Le Marché Couvert des Enfants Rouges was founded in 1615 under Louis XIII and took its name from a former hospital-orphanage established nearby in 1536 by François I’s sister, Marguerite de Navarre.
The orphans were clothed in red garments, so became known as the Enfants Rouges (“red children”).
The hospital closed in 1772, and the market was named in its memory at the end of the 18th century. At the time, it featured a well, butchers’ stalls and a stable to supply the neighbourhood with fresh milk.
The market, with its iron beams and glass roofs, was listed as an historic monument in 1982, but was almost replaced with a multi-storey carpark in the 1990s.
Enfants Rouges reopened in 2000 after six years of restoration work, bringing together market gardeners, dairy vendors, florists, restaurateurs, caterers and wine merchants.
Visitors entered through an ancient arcade to find stalls selling charcuterie and cheeses, flowers, and dishes from Morocco, Italy, Lebanon and Japan.
This year, Food & Wine, a US magazine, ranked it the fifth-best food market in the world after polling more than 400 culinary and travel professionals.
It was beaten by Borough Market in London, which came first, Chatuchak Market in Bangkok, Halles Paul Bocuse in Lyon and La Merced in Mexico City.
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