“A serious and imminent danger.” This Monday, the authorities evacuated a tower in Sarcelles presenting risks for its approximately 150 occupants. This announcement, made Friday by the municipality and the prefecture of Val-d’Oise, follows a series of fatal fires in unsanitary buildings.
A drifting co-ownership of 67 housing units and 17 floors, the Guyenne tower is one of the four residential towers of the Flanades complex, an urban complex built in 1972 in the center of the Grand Ensemble de Sarcelles. With only seven owner-occupants, strangled by charges of 600 euros per month, the tower has been reported several times for the presence of slumlords within its walls.
Central heating no longer works
In debt to the tune of one million euros, the private co-ownership has been placed in recent months under the control of a judicial administrator due to the deterioration of the premises and the significant risk of fire.
“The pipes which serve this building are in such a state of disrepair that the central heating no longer works, it is cut off in the building. People heat themselves with an electric heater plugged directly into the socket,” described the mayor of Sarcelles Patrick Haddad during a press conference.
Public power will replace co-ownership
After several months of legal proceedings to have work carried out, the authorities decided to evacuate the Guyenne Tower after a new expert report dated December 7 reporting a “serious and imminent danger for the occupants and third parties “.
“It’s an evacuation that is necessary and courageous. The public authorities will replace a co-ownership, that is to say the sum of the owners, which is failing,” declared the prefect of Val-d’Oise, Philippe Court, to the press.
The occupants of the building were evacuated this Monday morning and residents with a title deed or a lease in their name will be taken care of by the town of Sarcelles, aided by the State.
Several fires in similar settings recently
The public authorities have underlined the urgency of the situation by recalling the fatal fires that occurred in damaged buildings in Vaulx-en-Velin, near Lyon, and Stains, in Seine-Saint-Denis.
A year ago today, ten people including four children died in the fire of a degraded seven-story condominium in Vaulx-en-Velin and three weeks ago, three women died in Stains in the fire of a building which had to be evacuated a few days later due to its unsanitary conditions.
After its evacuation, the Guyenne Tower will be “recycled” by being taken over by a social landlord, who will benefit from financial assistance from the ANRU (National Agency for Urban Renewal) for the rehabilitation.