2023-08-14 21:39:43
French soldiers and forensic doctors intervene, on August 10, 2023, at the place where a fire broke out in a holiday home for people with disabilities, in Wintzenheim, eastern France, on August 9, 2023. SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP
An administrative investigation by the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (IGAS) has been opened following the fire that caused the death of eleven people in Wintzenheim (Haut-Rhin), the Minister Delegate announced on Monday August 14. in charge of persons with disabilities. “With the Minister for Solidarity and Families, Aurore Bergé, we have decided to launch (…) an administrative investigation, entrusted to the IGAS” following the fire in the lodge where ten people with disabilities and an accompanying person perished on Wednesday, Fadila Khattabi announced in a interview to the regional dailies of the Ebra group. “We are expecting the first results quite quickly, at the beginning of September”she added, specifying that they will be public.
This administrative investigation was launched in parallel with a preliminary investigation opened by the Paris prosecutor’s office for “involuntary homicides and injuries” “aggravated by the breach of an obligation of safety or prudence provided for by law or regulation”.
Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers Fire at the Wintzenheim gite: the investigation focuses on the criminal responsibilities for the tragedy
According to the town hall of Wintzenheim, the gîte, a renovated barn, had not been declared by its owner. The security commission had not been requested either, according to the Colmar prosecution.
Determine the ” technical or human failures”
Fadila Khattabi clarified that the two organizations managing trips adapted to people with disabilities “had an approval at the time of the tragedy. One of the two had his temporarily extended”. “The judicial inquiry will establish the situation of the gîte, and whether there have been technical or human failures”she announced.
Asked about the importance of legislating after this tragedy, the Minister judged that the legislative arsenal in terms of fire safety was sufficient. “It is a question of knowing if there were failures, faults, on the administrative level”also declared the Minister for Solidarity and Families, Aurore Bergé, in The Parisian Monday.
Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers Fire in a gîte in Alsace: after the tragedy, compliance with the safety standards in question
“I would also like us to be able to launch a more general mission on the question of suitable holidays to allow us to lay down clearer, stricter rules on the standards imposed, the public concerned, the rate of supervision or even the prices “in addition to this « mission flash » of IGAS, added the Minister.
She announced “increased means of control both in nursing homes and in structures that accommodate people with disabilities” in September, and recalled that an increase in staff would be planned for the start of the school year, “with two hundred people in all”. Twenty-eight people were present during the fire. Those living on the ground floor escaped unscathed, like five who were housed upstairs.
Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers In Wintzenheim, after the death of eleven people in the fire of a gîte, meditation and questions
#investigation #opened #social #affairs