The Day the Canebiere Burned - Nouvelles Galeries
On 28 October 1938, as a national political congress met in the city, the Nouvelles Galeries department store on this stretch of La Canebiere caught fire; blocked exits, a slow and ill-equipped fire brigade and panic turned it into a catastrophe that killed around seventy-three people, a scandal of negligence so grave that the mayor was dismissed and the French state seized direct control of Marseille.
Sobre este lugar
This upper stretch of La Canebiere was once the proud shopping heart of Marseille, lined with grand department stores, among them the Nouvelles Galeries. On 28 October 1938 it became the site of one of the deadliest fires in modern French history. A blaze broke out inside the crowded store, reportedly started by work being carried out on an upper floor, and it spread with terrifying speed. Exits were blocked or hard to reach, the city's fire brigade proved slow and badly equipped, and people were trapped inside as the building filled with smoke. Around seventy-three people died, most of them staff. The prime minister, Edouard Daladier, in Marseille for a political congress, watched the disaster from a nearby hotel. The failures were so flagrant that they became a national scandal: the mayor was removed and the central government took direct control of the city's administration. It was a crime not of violence but of negligence, and it reshaped Marseille.
Datos clave
- 73 dead — Around seventy-three people, many of them shop staff, died in the fire and the panic inside the burning store.
- 1938 year — The disaster struck on 28 October 1938, while a national political congress was being held in Marseille.
- 1 mayor dismissed — The scandal of negligence led to the mayor's dismissal and to the French state taking direct control of Marseille.
📍 La Canebière 40, 13001, Marseille