An impressive fire broke out around 1 p.m. at the Sportica sports complex in Gravelines, this Monday, December 25. The swimming pool, basketball room and cafeteria are affected. “A technical problem” would be at the origin. There were no injuries according to the town hall.
The Sportica swimming pool and the BCM basketball hall plunged into smoke and flames. Terrible images. This Monday, December 25, a fire broke out at the Gravelines sports complex, near Dunkirk, in the North. There were no injuries according to the town hall.
Around a hundred firefighters are currently responding. At 4 p.m., the fire was still not completely under control. Sdis 59 advises avoiding the area to facilitate the passage of emergency vehicles.
Despite the proximity of the building to homes, “the fire does not present any danger to the population”, indicated the City of Gravelines in a press release. “We call on residents in the area to stay at home with their windows closed.”
The flames apparently started from the Sportica swimming pool. On the images of Kevin Foley, author of the Facebook page “The Dunkirk voice”we see the complex’s slide heavily damaged by the fire.
Then, the blaze spread towards the basketball hall (with 3,000 seats) in which BCM Gravelines-Dunkerque plays in the French Jeep Elite championship. The cafeteria was also affected in turn, before the fire spread to the multi-sport area. The extent of the damage remains to be seen.
Also, in the video below, published on Jean-Louis Burnod’s Facebook account, we see an entire roof of the building located near the sports hall collapse, without knowing for the moment what it houses.
Concerning the origin of the fire, the mayor of Gravelines evokes the trail of a “Technical problem” without further details at this time. It could come from the swimming pool, closed today.
While the fire is still not out, the first messages of desolation are published on social networks. On X, the BCM Gravelines account sends “all his strength” to the firefighters to avoid the worst.
Jeep Elite clubs, opponents of the Northerners in the championship, express their support. This is particularly the case for Asvel, in the post below, which mentions the “mythical Sportica”.
“It’s a sad Christmas we’re experiencing at the moment” deplored the Swimming club, on its Facebook page. “Gravelines Natation will be strongly impacted but you can count on the coaching team and the board of directors to adapt and move forward.”
The mayor of the neighboring town Grande-Synthe, Martial Beyaert, also supports his counterpart Bertrand Ringot on X. The deputy for Pas-de-Calais, Pierre-Henri Dumont, does the same.