2023-08-09 12:40:44
Firefighters in response to the fire in a cottage in Wintzenheim, in the Haut-Rhin, on August 9, 2023. SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP
“Nine bodies have been located, two are still missing”, after the fire Wednesday August 9 in a lodging accommodating disabled people in Wintzenheim, near Colmar, according to Lieutenant-Colonel Philippe Hauwiller, commander of relief operations. The firefighter spoke of searches complicated by “the many rubble and collapsed parts”.
“Unfortunately, there are not many doubts: all these people were present in the gîte and could not come out”had declared earlier the secretary general of the Haut-Rhin prefecture, Christophe Marot, present on the spot, mentioning “eleven people potentially dead”.
Seventeen other people were evacuated and one, in relative emergency, was evacuated to hospital. The missing people are a supervisor and ten adults with mild mental disabilities, Mr. Marot told Agence France-Presse, saying he had no “no element” on the causes of the accident.
The fire broke out around 6:30 a.m. The Alsatian-style half-timbered building was the scene of a “widespread conflagration”according to firefighters. “300 square meters were set on fire, on a building of 500 square meters”describes the prefecture, confirming that “The fire was quickly brought under control despite the violence of the flames”. Lieutenant-Colonel Philippe Hauwiller described a “widespread conflagration” when the emergency services arrived on site, “less than a quarter of an hour” after the start of the disaster.
“Everything burned”
Seventy-six firefighters were mobilized. The building is an old barn renovated into a gîte of 500 square meters on the ground, with two floors and an attic, according to the firefighters, who specified that the fire started on the ground floor.
The building is completely destroyedreported on BFM-TV Daniel Leroydeputy mayor of the Alsatian commune. There remains the ground floor, a little less affected. But the accommodation floor, there is nothing left, everything has burned down. »
The elected official also said that the missing persons were “ all adults, there are no children”. “The building accommodated for the holidays, two groups of adults with disabilities, supervised by two associations”wrote the Haut-Rhin prefecture in a press release.
The Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, announced in the morning to go there, accompanied by Aurore Bergé, Minister of Solidarity and Families. “My first thoughts are with the victims and their loved ones.she added on X (formerly Twitter). I salute the mobilization of the firefighters. »
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“Faced with this tragedy, my thoughts go out to the victims, to the injured, to their loved ones”also wrote Emmanuel Macron on X. “Thank you to our security forces and our mobilized emergency services. »
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