VINCENT-XAVIER MORVAN / AFP
The building in Grasse burned down on Sunday August 13. The suspect admitted in police custody to having thrown a lit cigarette in the hall.
MISCELLANEOUS – He admitted the facts. The 47-year-old man suspected of having set fire to a building in Grasse on Sunday confessed while in police custody to be the cause of the fire which killed three people, announced the public prosecutor of Grasse Damien Savarzeix this Tuesday August 15th.
The suspect said “ to be at the origin of the fire, but involuntarily, by evoking the throwing of an unextinguished cigarette in the entrance hall of the building. The psychiatric examination carried out during police custody concludes, at this stage, full responsibility.wrote the prosecutor in this press release obtained RMC And nice morning.
His police custody has been lifted and he must be brought before a judge for an indictment for “willful damage by fire resulting in death”, “willful damage by fire causing permanent disability” and “willful damage “. A judicial inquiry will be opened.
For its part, the Grasse prosecutor’s office indicated that it was going to request the detention of the suspect. The latter, the prosecutor had indicated on Monday, had no criminal record and until then denied his involvement.
Spotted by CCTV
He had been arrested at 8:35 p.m. » Sunday, after “ the operation of the city’s video protection » made it possible to identify an individual leaving the building two minutes before the cameras detected the start of a fire”also explained Damien Savarzeix.
The three people who died in this fire which broke out on Sunday at 2:49 a.m. in the stairwell of a five-story building in the historic center” of Grasse are “ two women and a man »whose identity is being identified, the bodies having been rendered unrecognizable by the fire”specifies the press release of the prosecutor.
” Three people ” were also “ seriously injured” in the fire, one of which still remains in a vital emergency”said the prosecution, adding that “ thirteen people were briefly hospitalized following smoke inhalation..
Among the three victims, two perished in the flames and another, who had probably defenestrated to try to escape the fire, was found unresponsive by the firefighters in front of the building.
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