A fire broke out on Monday, July 28, in the morning, in a cottage welcoming adults with disabilities in Charente, killing and four injured, the prefecture of Charente announced. In addition, two people are always missing. The fire broke out around 4:30 a.m. in the town of Montmoreau, south of Angoulême.
Inside the building were fourteen 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”. “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 Libreshe is a 60 -year -old disabled woman.
During a press conference of the Charente prefecture on Monday noon, Jean-Charles Jobart deplored “An already very heavy assessment”making being three dead. “We are looking for two missing people, four others were evacuated to the Angoulême hospital center, one of which is in absolute emergency, without its vital prognosis being committed”added Mr. Jobart.
“We believe that during the day, the balance sheet will undoubtedly increase”, he continued, declaring that the dogs of the Cynophile Brigade, “The only ones can enter inside”ont “Already marked two places inside”.
“Very little hope”
On BFM TV, the minister responsible for people with disabilities, Charlotte Parmentier Lecocq, said he only had “Very little hope, concerning the two people still blocked under the rubble”. The minister will go there “In an emergency, around 4 pm”.
During the press conference, the vice public prosecutor of Angoulême, Mathieu Auriol,, for his part assured, that the cottage “Had been visited by state services two years ago, and that he had received a favorable opinion at the time of security check”. “This cottage met standards well”also abounded Mme Parmentier Lecocq on BFM, and “The staff were trained to welcome people with disabilities”.
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Auriol confirmed that a flagration survey had been opened, that the investigations were still underway, and that autopsies would be carried out on the bodies of the victims carried by this fire.
This is now “Considered to be extinguished”according to Mr. Jobart. A cell is set up for the psychological care of families, as well as for the survivors of the deadly fire.
Cause still indeterminate
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 Mr. Jobart. A source of the gendarmerie had mentioned earlier a possible malfunction of the electrical installation.
The burned building is an old farmhouse that had “The label to welcome people with disabilities during the holiday period”had previously declared to AFP Jean-Michel Bolvin, mayor of Montmoreau, commune of around 2,400 inhabitants.
This fire occurs a little less than two years after the one who had killed eleven in a former barn transformed into a gîte welcoming people with a light handicap in Wintzenheim (Haut-Rhin), near Colmar. Ten adults with disabilities and an accompanist had perished in the disaster.
