Ski resort workers leap from deadly blaze

A huge fire killed two people and left 22 injured in the French Alpine ski resort of Courchevel yesterday.

Restaurant and hotel workers leapt from the third floor of the building after the fire broke out in the early hours.

Officials said that the victims had been among the 60 or so mainly young people housed in the building who worked in hotels and restaurants at the resort during the ski season.

Courchevel is known as the winter playground for the rich and famous, in recent years attracting Russian billionaires prepared to pay €150,000 (NZ$253,000) or more for a chalet for a week. Despite Chanel, the luxury clothes retailer, and Chopard, the Swiss watchmaker, occupying boutiques on the ground floor of the building, claims have been made since the fire that the site was unsafe. Frederic Loiseau, a local government official, said that it ‘‘must have been a while’’ since the building had undergone a fire safety inspection.

Loiseau said that the fire had spread ‘‘extremely quickly, which led a certain number of occupants to take emergency action and jump from the windows to save their lives’’.

A total of 130 fire officers were called to the scene. However, Colonel Emmanuel Clavaud, director of the local fire service, said that much of the building was on fire by the time officers arrived, and all they could do was to help residents to escape the flames. He said that two bodies had been found but had not yet been identified. Four people were hospitalised with serious injuries, including two who jumped from the third floor. Their injuries are not thought to be lifethreatening.