Since the beginning of the morning on Tuesday, all the actors mobilized to try to find the last victim of the explosion in rue Saint-Jacques, in the heart of the 5th arrondissement of Paris, were convinced: they were approaching the goal. “Several clues led us to think that we had probably identified the area where his body was,” says a source familiar with the matter. Anne B., 51, a teacher in her fifties at the Paris American Academy, was on the third floor when the building collapsed last Wednesday. Since then, the victim had given no sign of life, and the hope of finding her alive was no longer allowed.
In the early afternoon, shortly after 2 p.m., a body was finally located in the rubble, learned 20 minutes from consistent sources. Clearing operations are currently underway. “The identification of the victim is also in progress and an autopsy is planned very soon”, indicates the Paris prosecutor’s office. “Three elements make it possible to identify a person: their DNA, their fingerprints and their teeth, specifies Sébastien Aguilar, national secretary of the Snipat Scientific Police. However, in a case like this, when a person has disappeared, the investigators have already recovered elements of comparison, so it can go very quickly. »
weakened buildings
A speed that contrasts with the research time: almost six days. If the explosion was of rare intensity, the excavation area was nevertheless small… but particularly unstable. “The smallest block of stone that we moved was likely to destabilize the whole ground, we really had to do some lace”, explains this source close to the file, which ensures that finding the victim remained “the priority objective”. At the scene of the tragedy, three main actors were working together: the Paris fire brigade (BSPP), supported by dogs and drones, forensic identification – a specialized police service – and private companies commissioned to ensuring the security and clearing of the site.
This street, one of the oldest in Paris, is home to buildings, each older than the next, far from current standards: the one that collapsed, built in freestone, dated from the 17th century. On Friday 23, less than 48 hours after the explosion, the excavations had to be interrupted in order to install wooden cladding on the adjoining building, the wall of which was in danger of collapsing. Measuring devices had picked up that it had moved a few centimeters. “Given the configuration of the site, preliminary security phases were necessary to progress”, specifies this source. The search could not resume until Sunday morning at dawn.
lead content
It is therefore impossible to go there with an excavator in all directions, the site being too fragile. Construction machinery was obviously used, but each gesture had to be precise and measured. In addition, the lead content at the scene of the tragedy was monitored daily: no data is currently worrying, but if it were, it would require adapting the protocol.
At the same time, the investigations carried out by the Parisian judicial police are continuing to try to identify the origin of the explosion. The track of a gas leak remains privileged for the time being. After the discovery of this body, the Paris prosecutor’s office specifies that the investigation is now continuing on the counts of “manslaughter” and “involuntary injuries” by obviously deliberate violation of a particular obligation of prudence and security.