Philippe Lopez / AFP
The firefighters intervene on the site of a French cottage intended for disabled adults, where a fire broke out, killing three people in Montmoreau, in the southwest of France, on July 28, 2025.
Miscellaneous facts – a toll that increases. Four people died this Monday, July 28 after the fire during the night of a gîte welcoming disabled adults in Charente, on which firefighters still intervened in the middle of the morning. A person is also missing.
The victims are the owner of the cottage and three people with disabilities, said the Minister Delegate in charge of people with disabilities Charlotte Parmentier-Lecocq, who came to Montmoreau, south of Angoulême.
Inside the building were 14 adults aged 20 to 75: eight people suffering from a mental handicap and four supervisors, present for a one-week stay, and the two owners, according to the secretary general of the prefecture and sub-prefect of Angoulême, Jean-Charles Jobart.
The firefighters arrived on the scene in less than 20 minutes and “Have noted a fire which was already very advanced”he said. “We went up to 24 vehicles and 85 firefighters on site”.
An still indeterminate cause
“They were able to evacuate in particular a person, but who could not be resuscitated and who died, suffocated”he added. According to the local newspaper La Charente Libre, it is a 60 -year -old disabled woman. The inanimate bodies of three other victims would have been found in the rubble of the building. “The dogs have just scored two places inside the house, so probably the assessment will increase”also said Jean-Charles Jobart.
Around 10 am, firefighters were still being intervention, especially on the charred roof of the old isolated farmhouse, surrounded by trees and a field of sunflowers, found AFP journalists. Smoke was still visible and a cynophile team was deployed.
The prosecution has opened an investigation, but it is “Far too early to be able to determine itself on the causes of the disaster”who is “No doubt accidental”said Jean-Charles Jobart again. A source of the gendarmerie had mentioned earlier a possible malfunction of the electrical installation.
The burned building had “The label to welcome people with disabilities during the holiday period”said to AFP Jean-Michel Bolvin, mayor of this town of around 2,400 inhabitants.
This is a “Small cottage which welcomes less than 16 people, who was therefore not subject to declaration or security commission”said Jean-Charles Jobart. “However, state services inspected the site three years ago for the reception of disabled people and had given a favorable opinion”.
The fire occurs a little less than two years after the one who killed 11 people in an old barn transformed into a gîte welcoming light disabled people in Wintzenheim, near Colmar, in Haut-Rhin. Ten disabled adults and an accompanist had perished in the disaster, and this drama had relaunched the issue of safety standards in this type of place, especially in the face of the risk of fire.