The Place Vendome parking garage in the center of Paris partly burned down today after a car caught fire. The garage often holds a lot of very rare and exotic cars as you can see in the video below. Last year the Gumball 3000 had a stop at the Place Vendome in the center of Paris and all the cars of the Gumballers were parked in this garage over night.

Reports indicate that the fire originated at a car parked on the second floor of the Place Vendome, the exact cause of the fire is unknown. The make and model of the car(s) involved remain unconfirmed but rumours among people at the scene in Paris say the car that caught fire was a Ferrari. The fire caused thick black smoke and nearby buildings had to be evacuated. Hopefully the fire troops get the fire under control soon and nobody got injured.

Update: According to our Paris reporter Alex there is one person light wounded.

Update 2 19:21 CET: The fire started around 16h40 at the -2 parking, as we reported earlier one light wounded has already been treated by the medics. The fire is still going on, around 100 firemen are working on it but it’s really hard to get the fire under control because of the heavy smoke and high temperatures inside the garage. As one of our readers already commented below, it was already hot in the garage last year when the Gumball 3000 was there, imagine now.

Update 3: The unconfirmed cause of the fire is a car on -2 that leaked petrol. For safety reasons the Place Vendôme and 400 meter around it has been closed off.

Around 7pm CET, the firemen made a statement that the garage is still burning and that they don’t know yet how big the devastation in the Place Vendome garage is. But apparently, quite a lot of cars burned down, very bad news.

Update 4: Based on first estimations from insurance experts GTspirit has spoken dozens of vehicles are likely to be destroyed by a fire of this scale and dozens of others are likely to have suffered smoke and / or water damage. Considering the large number of expensive cars parked in the Place Vendome parking garage and damage to the garage itself the total damage of the fire is likely to be in excess of 5 million Euros.

Update 5 8pm CET: Paris Fire Department says it may take them all night to get the fire completely under control. We fear a majority of the cars parked in level -2 has to be considered a loss. The extreme heat and smoke is likely to have caused damage to vehicles parked on other levels as well.

Update 6 8:50pm CET: Our local reporter says the Paris Fire Department stated the fire has been contained. There is still smoke coming from the Place Vendome but the fire would not spread any further.

Update 7 9:45pm CET: We added a new photo via @JordanPillet to the gallery above. He reports Place Vendome remains locked down by police, fire figthers are on scene and police refuses to answer any questions.

Update 8: Paris Fire Department has decleared that around 9pm the last flames were extinguished in the underground parking garage under Place Vendome. At least 30 vehicles have been destroyed by the fierce fire that started just before 5pm this afternoon. The extreme heat and smoke is likely to have caused damage to many other vehicles parked in the Place Vendome garage. Local authorities have initiated an investigation to determine the causes of the accident.

Update 9: Our local reporter Alex just spoke to a friend who works at the garage. He stated the parking is closed down completely at least until tomorrow. At least 40 cars caught fire and have yet to be evacuated. The authorities are worried the structure of the parking might have been compromised by the fire, so they called the architects of the project to check the structural integrity.

Supercars normally parked in the Place Vendome Paris Garage

[Photos via LeParisien & Ferrarix, information and updates thanks to Alex Smolik]

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10 COMMENTS

  1. Talk about a cliche having a Ferrari start that fire. Hopefully the damage can be minimized.

    I was down there during the 2011 Gumball 3000 and due to poor ventilation and hundreds of hot super car engines the place was like a sauna!

  2. Yes we were there as well and I really hope nobody got seriously injured and they manage to get the fire under control quickly. But considering the thick clouds of black smoke I fear a lot of cars may be lost in the fire.

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