2023-08-13 11:51:00
Three people died in the fire of a five-storey building in the historic center of Grasse which occurred at dawn on Sunday but was quickly brought under control by firefighters.
Two people died in the flames that ravaged the stairwell of this old building and another, who had probably defenestrated to try to escape the fire, was found unresponsive by firefighters in front of the building.
No information on the identity of these people has been communicated.
The emergency services also counted three seriously injured, four slightly injured and eleven people are unscathed.
The injured were evacuated to various hospitals in the department, in particular to Grasse and Nice.
The fire broke out around 3 a.m. in this five-storey building made up of private accommodation and located on Place aux Aires, in the heart of the historic center of the city of perfumes, a lively square in summer and popular with tourists for its restaurants, its fountain and its adjacent pedestrian streets.
“The fire mainly concerned the stairwell”, the apartments were not completely burned but were above all damaged by smoke, explained the commander of the rescue operations Jean-Christophe Demarte.
Only the building in question was affected, those adjoining remained intact.
A security cordon was put in place around this building, of which at least three floors, those at the top, out of the five were affected by fire, noted an AFP correspondent on the spot.
Seized, the judicial police had also installed a barnum in front of the building to make the first findings. The bodies of the victims were also evacuated in vans parked in the security perimeter.
“The investigation is underway to determine the origin of the incident,” the Grasse prosecutor’s office told AFP.
Renovation work was planned
The mayor of this commune on the Côte d’Azur, Jérome Viaud (Les Républicains), clarified that the building had no “structural problem” but that renovation work on the facade and common areas was “planned in October”.
“We have, in Vieux-Grasse, a certain number of buildings which are degraded. On this building, there was no structural problem”, he declared during a press conference.
“Today, it is premature to say what is the origin of the fire, if it is a criminal or accidental origin”, according to him.
The center of Grasse, a city known for its perfumeries, has a high rate of poverty, but renovation operations have been carried out there for years. The building where the fire broke out had, like other buildings in the historic center, been put on notice by the municipality to speed up the renovation work.
Following this fire, at least eleven people will be relocated to a hotel in the city: “The building will be closed. The people who lived there will not be able to access it for a while” because it is necessary “to leave the investigation to be done,” said the mayor.
“An alarm started to beep then I heard screams and that’s what woke me up,” testified to AFP Martine, who lives on the second floor of a neighboring building and prefers to keep her name quiet. of family.
“A woman called for help, shouting ‘fire’ and asked to call the fire brigade, which I did. Above her floor, a man tried to descend to escape the flames and then he fell” , she added.
08/13/2023 11:49:52 – Grasse (France) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
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