2 Charged in French Fire Fatal to 24 Elderly

BEAUVAIS, France — Two maintenance men were charged with involuntary homicide and injury in connection with a Jan. 9 fire that killed 24 old people in a rural hospital and resort home in Grandvilliers, northwest of Paris, officials said Saturday.

The charges were filed against Roger Bure, 58, and Jean Waro, 39. The two said they had tried to thaw out a water pipe with a flame from a gas bottle, then left the building a few hours before the fire broke out in the area where they had been working.