The investigation is still ongoing, a month and a half after the tragedy. The gendarmes raided the town hall of Wintzenheim (Haut-Rhin) on Thursday, a town in which 11 people, including 10 with disabilities, died in a fire in a gîte on August 9, said mayor Serge Nicole on Facebook. “All the agents and elected officials collaborated with the gendarmerie services” during this search carried out “as part of the investigation concerning the fire in La Forge”, the hamlet where the gîte was located, assured the mayor.
According to the daily The Latest News from Alsace, who revealed the information, the gendarmes took away town planning documents and interviewed two municipal agents. Following the fire, a judicial investigation was opened by the Paris prosecutor’s office for homicides and involuntary injuries “aggravated by the violation of an obligation of safety or prudence provided for by law or regulation”. Asked by AFP, the Paris prosecutor’s office did not immediately respond.
Eleven people, including ten with disabilities, who came as part of an adapted holiday, and one accompanying person, died in the fire in this gîte. The Wintzenheim town hall quickly clarified that the gîte had not been declared by its owner. Daniel Leroy, deputy mayor, affirmed that the building, an old barn with stables of 500 m2 renovated a few years ago, had “not been the subject of any authorization for the activity (that the owner) there exercised.” It also did not have “work authorizations to be able to accommodate disabled people”.
The investigation by the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (Igas) demonstrated “a general dysfunction”, the adapted holidays having “not been sufficiently supervised, standardized and thought out”, estimated Friday the Minister of Solidarity, Aurore Bergé .