Two people, still unidentified, were found dead after the fire in a two-storey apartment building early this Sunday in Lens, said the firefighters and the prosecution, which does not exclude the criminal track. “It is still too early to comment on the causes of the fire”, but in view of the first elements collected, the criminal track is not excluded, and the investigation is therefore open “for destruction or degradation by fire, resulting in death, “said the Béthune prosecutor’s office.
A burnt tire covered with rags was discovered “in the building or in its vicinity”, said the prosecution, confirming information from the Voice of the North. “The exploitation of video surveillance” and “technical investigations” should make it possible to specify the causes of the disaster, the same source added. The identity, age and sex of the victims remain undetermined, according to the prosecution.
Five people in hospital
The firefighters were called at 4:32 a.m. on rue Pasteur, in the city center, “for a fire in an apartment on the second floor”, which had spread to the roof, said a spokesperson for the departmental fire operational center. and relief. The two bodies were discovered in the rubble on the second floor, “a priori a man and a woman of indeterminate age”, he continued.
Five people were rescued and taken to hospital, four of whom were bothered by the fumes, and one person with foot trauma. Two other people, unharmed, were left behind, he said. “The rapid intervention of the firefighters”, in particular by means of three lances and two aerial ladders, “made it possible to avoid a spread to the adjoining houses”, specify the firefighters in a press release. According to the Pas-de-Calais prefecture, around fifty firefighters were mobilized.