2023-08-11 16:49:05
Firefighters inspect the rubble of the Wintzenheim lodge ravaged by flames on August 9, 2023. SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP
Two days after the deadly fire which claimed the lives of eleven people in a cottage in Wintzenheim (Haut-Rhin), which accommodated two groups of holidaymakers with mild mental disabilities and their companions, the investigation focuses on the failures suspected in the management of the establishment and possible breaches of safety standards.
The Colmar public prosecutor’s office, which had initially opened an investigation for “search for the causes of death”, withdrew, on Friday August 11, in favor of the collective accident center of the Paris public prosecutor’s office, which opened a preliminary investigation for ” manslaughter and involuntary injury aggravated by the breach of an obligation of safety or prudence”, announced the two jurisdictions in a joint press release.
This referral to the Paris public prosecutor’s office is justified by the “number of victims spread over the national territory and the extent of the investigations to come”the statement said. It also embodies the direction taken by the survey, “the first investigations [ayant] leads to questions about the material and legal security conditions of the building”who will therefore endeavor to determine the criminal responsibilities of this tragedy.
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Referral to the collective accident center is not automatic in such cases, explains to the Monde the Paris prosecutor’s office. It is motivated by the plurality of victims, the technical or legal complexity of the investigation. Moreover, this specialized center can only look for involuntary penal responsibilities, which confirms that justice favors the thesis of the accident. According to a source close to the file, no track has yet appeared on how the fire started which ravaged the gîte.
“A chain of decision-making”
The investigations must therefore focus on materializing any breaches of the law and at what levels of responsibility they have been observed, from the owner of the gîte to the prefecture, via the agency which organized the stay, the associations which accompanied the residents or the town hall of Wintzenheim. “The legal questions will arise along a chain of decision-making, a knotted rope of acts which will have to be established whether they are likely to entail the criminal or civil liability of the various actors”specifies the Paris prosecutor’s office.
In addition to any criminal liability, those of the actors who may have directly contributed to the tragedy and who could be referred to court, the investigation may establish responsibilities in the civil case: those of the actors who may have contributed to the tragedy without being the direct cause , and who could be required to compensate the victims without necessarily having been criminally convicted.
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