13 people were killed when birthday cake candles set a French bar on fire

Firefighters enter the burned Cuba Libre bar in Rouen
(Image credit: Mattheieu Alexandre/Getty Images)

At least 13 people were killed and six more injured in a fire at a basement bar in Rouen, France, Friday night. Eyewitness accounts say the blaze at Cuba Libre bar began accidentally, reported Laurent Labadie of the local prosecutor's office. "There was no explosion," Labadie said. "Candles on a birthday cake started the fire after the person who carried it tripped on the stairs leading to the basement."

Sound insulation materials on the basement walls burned very rapidly, leaving party-goers little time to escape. "It happened in three seconds," the bar's owner recalled. "Some customers exited on their hands and knees. Some of them tried to use a fire extinguisher, but it was too late."

The identities and ages of the victims are currently unknown. More than 50 firefighters worked to put out the flames.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.