Paris Loses Its Oldest Market to Fire as Hackers Cripple French Supermarket Fridges

A 411-Year-Old Landmark Reduced to Ash

It survived the French Revolution, narrowly escaped being turned into a parking lot, and had just been named one of the world's top food market destinations. Then, in the early hours of Monday, October 12, fire consumed it entirely. A blaze destroyed Paris's oldest covered food market, the Marché Couvert des Enfants Rouges in the Marais district, which authorities confirmed was "completely destroyed." The cause of the fire remains unknown.

A spectacular blaze tore through the iconic covered market overnight, gutting its iron and glass roof and torching all 17 food stalls. More than 150 firefighters were mobilized to tackle the blaze. After touring the site, Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire said the market had been "completely destroyed," while thanking firefighters who battled the blaze for over two hours for ensuring it did not spread to surrounding buildings in the densely populated area. There were no casualties aside from a firefighter who suffered minor injuries.

Four Centuries of History Gone Overnight

Founded in 1615 and listed as a historic monument since 1982, it stood as a precious witness to old Paris. The market takes its name from a nearby orphanage whose children wore red clothing. In the late 18th century, that orphanage closed, but the name endured — and so did the market's spirit. When it fell into disrepair in the 1980s and '90s, local residents famously blocked plans to demolish it and replace it with a parking lot. It reopened as a beloved food court in 2000, and this year, Food & Wine magazine named it among the world's top 10 global market destinations.

New Yorkers who had visited the market just days before the fire returned Monday morning only to be greeted by police cordons, fire trucks, and a foul, acrid smell. "It was such a lovely place, so charming — and now it's gone," said one visitor. "It's tragic." Paris authorities have temporarily closed Square du Temple and Jardin Madeleine de Scudéry following the incident, and officials have not announced when the market or the two gardens will reopen.

Hackers Strike France's Food Supply Chain the Same Night

As if one food catastrophe weren't enough, France's grocery sector was simultaneously hit by a brazen cyberattack. Attackers manipulated Danfoss-made cooling systems to run a nonstop defrost cycle, driving temperatures in refrigerators and freezers up to 50 degrees Celsius over a period of about six hours. At least 300 shops of Intermarché or its Netto brand were targeted, along with over 100 Coopérative U outlets and several E. Leclerc stores.

The Paris prosecutor's office described a "large-scale" attack "affecting connected refrigerators in several major food retailers across France," leading to food losses and fires. Affected branches were forced to "throw away all of the products" that are fresh and frozen. Intermarché warned there could be issues with insurance policies that do not "cover this type" of in-store incident. The chief executive of Coopérative U, Dominique Schelcher, described the attack as "unprecedented."

A Wake-Up Call for Food Security

European Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Christophe Hansen warned that "the weaponization of food has become a reality." That chilling phrase lands differently when set against the backdrop of the Enfants Rouges fire — two separate events, one accidental and one criminal, that together exposed just how fragile a city's food infrastructure can be in a single night. The Paris prosecutor's office has opened an investigation into the large-scale cyberattack.

For the Marais and for Paris at large, the loss of Enfants Rouges cuts deeper than the loss of a place to eat. It was a living thread connecting the city to 1615 — to Louis XIII, to red-uniformed orphans, to generations of Parisians who fought to keep it alive. Whether the market can ever be rebuilt, and whether France can shore up the digital defenses protecting something as fundamental as the food on its shelves, are now the urgent questions facing a country shaken by one very long Monday morning.