NANCY, France — Investigators have concluded a train fire that killed 12 people in eastern France earlier this month was caused by a kitchenette hot-plate, sources said Monday.
According to the Associated Press, an electrical short-circuit was originally suspected in the fire, which filled a sleeping car with fatal smoke on Nov. 6, three hours after the train left Paris for Munich, Germany.
Sources close to the case said the fire started on the hot plate. The smell awoke an attendant sleeping nearby, who saw the flames spreading to a jacket hung next to the plate.
It was not clear if the hot plate had been turned on or if the fire started because of an electrical malfunction. Investigators have asked the German owner of the car, Deutsche Bahn, to provide the plans for the plate’s circuitry, the sources said on condition of anonymity.
The fire started around 2 a.m. as the train traveled through the city of Nancy. Smoke billowed through the car, and panicked passengers smashed windows in a frantic bid to escape.
Attention has focused on the actions of the car attendant. After discovering the fire and extinguishing part of it with water, he left the car to search for a conductor. There was no telephone in the car.
When he returned, flames and smoke had engulfed the car. It was not clear why he did not pull the alarm or use the extinguisher to put out the fire, the sources said.
The car had no smoke detectors, though cigarette smoking was allowed. Deutsche Bahn, Germany’s national railroad, said it was considering introducing smoke alarms on sleeping cars, now not a requirement in Europe.
Five Americans, three German men, two Russians, a Hungarian man, and a Greek woman were killed. The Americans were all members of the same family.