The toll of the fire in a building in downtown Bressuire (Deux-Sèvres), overnight from Thursday to Friday, increased to five dead, the prosecution announced on Saturday afternoon. “A new victim has just been discovered in the rubble, bringing the provisional toll to five deaths”, writes the public prosecutor of Niort Julien Wattebled, in a press release.
“Significant resources are mobilized to continue the research in the building where the fire broke out, with the use of a truck crane and two nacelles and technical means allowing a modeling of the places in three dimensions” he writes, specifying that “the access remained however very complicated”. “At this stage, only one victim could be extracted from the building,” he added. Their identification should take “several more days”, specifies Julien Wattebled.
The Ambassador of the Comoros visited the scene
Shortly before 5 a.m., on the night of Thursday to Friday, the fire had spread to the top of a two-storey building, boulevard Maréchal Joffre, ravaging four studios located in the attic and destroying the staircase which led there. led, the floor of the top floor as well as the roof.
The tenants of these four apartments, located in a stone building with a notarial office on the ground floor, were all from the Comoros, said the town hall.
On Saturday morning, the Comoros’ ambassador to France Ahamada Ahmadi went to the scene before meeting members of the Comorian community living there, said the mayor of Bressuire Emmanuelle Ménard, who accompanied him. The city has opened a psychological aid unit, particularly for the Comorian community. The owner of the premises was heard by the investigators, indicated the prefect and the mayor during a press briefing the day before.
Ten people evacuated
Friday morning, nearly 70 firefighters were mobilized and the fire under control, according to the department’s firefighters. A 20-year-old man, burned, was saved from the flames and transported to the Faye-l’Abbesse hospital center, a few kilometers away and will be heard by the investigators, added the prosecution. More than 50 gendarmes were mobilized, including investigators from the Bressuire research brigade and criminal identification technicians. A team of experts from the criminal research institute of the national gendarmerie (IRCGN), whose headquarters is located in Pontoise (Val-d’Oise), will be hired, said the gendarmerie.
Ten people from a hotel adjoining the building were evacuated as a precaution, with no injuries to report, added the firefighters and the manager of the establishment. According to Madame Lavaux (who did not wish to communicate her first name), manager and resident of this hotel-restaurant La Boule d’Or, “the smoke entered the 2nd floor around 4:20 am and sounded the alarm. We called the fire brigade with my husband and we went out into the street with our two children and six clients. We saw a person running in the street and another on the roof, who was taken care of by the firefighters. A security perimeter has been set up.