The firefighters fought for a long time a major fire which was triggered shortly before 1 a.m., on the night of Thursday to Friday, in a building in the rue Carnot, in Villerupt.
The fire was so violent that it caused the collapse of the first and second floors.
Several occupants were rescued and three people, slightly injured, were hospitalized.
Corn two residents are still missing. They were likely to be in one of the apartments on the second floor of the building. The emergency services do not know if they were present at the time of the disaster and were continuing their search this morning in the rubble.
More than 50 firefighters were mobilized, rescue centers in Villerupt, Longwy and Moselle.