Le Drugstore Est Fini

EQUALLY popular with tourists and Parisians, Le Drugstore, located near the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs-Elysees, was as zany a bit of pseudo Americana abroad as a Frenchman could have conceived. Opened by Advertising Tycoon Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet in 1958, Le Drugstore offered an expensive boutique, books and magazines, a restaurant that served hamburgers and banana splits, and a department for prescription drugs. The formula worked so well that Paris soon had a flock of "Drugstores."

Last week Le Drugstore achieved a different kind of fame.

A fire that started in a back-room trash barrel raced through the building, which in its Hotel Astoria days had served as General Dwight Eisenhower's headquarters, gutting it in a matter of minutes. The fire was the most spectacular that Paris had seen in years, and one of the most costly, with damages estimated at $20 million. The towering flames were visible as far away as Montmartre and Montparnasse. Six employees managed to escape from the burning building, one by jumping into the arms of onlookers. A Drugstore accountant was not so lucky. Firemen found her charred body in the ruins the next morning.

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