2023-08-10 05:09:47
Alsatian firefighters at the scene of the fire at the Wintzenheim lodge (Haut-Rhin), August 9, 2023. SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP
It was up to the men of the Church to seek words of appeasement and recollection. In the large church of Wintzenheim (Haut-Rhin), Father Albert Nouati searched for words, this evening of Wednesday August 9, to try to express the solidarity of a small Alsatian village, on the outskirts of Colmar, facing the death, the same morning, of eleven people, mainly mentally handicapped adults, burned alive in the fire of a lodging where they had come to spend the holidays accompanied by animators. “We are here to stick together in this trying time. Our silence is a cry”explained the priest, hand in hand with two pastors and a representative of the Jewish community of the region, during an ecumenical ceremony in front of several dozen inhabitants.
It is up to the gendarmes and the courts to understand the sequence of circumstances that led to a “terrible drama”as described by the head of government, Elisabeth Borne, who came to the scene in the afternoon, accompanied by the Minister of Solidarity and the Family, Aurore Bergé.
The questions are many. First on the fire itself. “The origin would probably be for the moment a fire that has smoldered”, said the deputy prosecutor of Colmar, Nathalie Kielwasser, at the end of the day. The magistrate explained to the Monde not have any indication, at this stage, of the accidental or criminal nature of the fire.
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The fire was reported around 6:30 a.m., firefighters arrived fifteen minutes later. According to Lieutenant-Colonel Philippe Hauwiller, the authorities mobilized 80 firefighters, four fire engines, four ambulances, an advanced medical post and three ladders, to try to contain the fire as quickly as possible.
But the images of videos shot by neighbors show that this old building, an 1870 farmhouse renovated a few years ago, which housed twenty-eight people, in two lodgings, on two levels, caught fire extremely quickly, carrying the entire frame and roof. Witnesses reported that the top of the building was totally burned by 7 a.m.
A young woman escapes by jumping out of a window
The boarders and attendants who were on the ground floor, originally from Besançon, were able to escape in time. Most of the residents housed on the first floor, who came from Nancy, found themselves trapped in the flames. A 25-year-old woman managed to escape by jumping out of a window.
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