The bodies of 11 people were found in the rubble of the lodging devastated by a fire on Wednesday August 9 in Wintzenheim (Haut-Rhin), as confirmed by Nathalie Kielwasser, deputy prosecutor of the Judicial Court of Colmar. The establishment accommodated 28 disabled people and their supervisors. Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne visited the scene on Wednesday afternoon. After meeting elected officials and firefighters from Sdis 68, she took the floor and deplored a “dreadful drama”, the circumstances of which remain unclear. Follow our live.
The fire would have smoldered for several hours before the alert. Still according to Nathalie Kielwasser, the configuration of the building suggests that the fire could have smoldered for several days before the alert was given, around 6:30 am. It was the owner of the gîte who launched the alert after hearing people screaming for help. Tenants living on the ground floor “are all alive”, said the deputy prosecutor. An investigation to find the causes of death was also opened and entrusted to the research section of the Strasbourg gendarmerie.
The executive deplores a “tragedy”. Elisabeth Borne quickly announced on Wednesday on Twitter that she would go to Wintzenheim in the company of the Minister of Solidarity, Aurore Bergé. Both arrived around 2 p.m. at the scene of the tragedy. “Faced with this tragedy, my thoughts go out to the victims, to the injured, to their loved ones”reacted for his part the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, on Twitter.
Vacationers came from Doubs and Meurthe-et-Moselle. The establishment welcomed two groups of people with disabilities, supervised by two different associations. “A discreet welcome for families was organized in a room in Wintzenheim”, the prefecture said in a statement. Some of them came from Nancy, whose mayor, Mathieu Klein, said to himself “deeply bruised”. Twelve other people came from Franche-Comté, the Doubs prefecture said, and all came out of the fire unscathed.
An important device deployed. On site, 76 firefighters, four fire engines, four ambulances and an advanced medical post were deployed in the space of fifteen minutes. In all, 300 m2 out of the 500 that make up the private gîte have “been ablaze”, depending on the prefecture. “The fire was quickly brought under control despite the violence of the flames”, she says. Besides, “17 people were evacuated”, and a person “relatively urgent” was transferred to the hospital. A person in shock was also taken care of.