2023-08-19 12:49:00
Three people died, including a 13-year-old girl who threw herself out of the window, and several were injured in a fire on Saturday morning in an apartment building in L’Île-Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis), a learned Agence France-Presse (AFP) from firefighters and police sources. “Around 10 a.m., a fire broke out in an apartment building in L’Île-Saint-Denis,” said the prefecture of Seine-Saint-Denis in a press release, referring to an “important safety device , fire and rescue” hired to fight the ongoing fire, mobilizing 195 firefighters supported by 60 vehicles.
According to the Bobigny prosecutor’s office, requested by AFP, the three victims are a woman born in 1997 who threw herself out of the window, another born in 1976 and her son born in 2009. Among the injured, fifteen residents were transported in a hospital environment and four firefighters were slightly injured, according to the same source.
The apartment fire started from the 9th floor of the building which has 11, firefighters told AFP. Two firefighters were hospitalized in “absolute emergency” but their “condition is stable”, said a firefighter spokesperson. Eight residents of the building were slightly intoxicated, according to the same source.
The fire extinguished
“The fire is out, our priority is the care of the victims”, announced around 3:00 p.m. a captain of the Paris fire brigade (BSPP). He described a “testing commitment” for the teams, which carried out at least “eight rescues of people stranded on the floors”.
The mayor announced that he had set up a reception center for evacuees at a gymnasium in the city. ” We are at your service. The fire is still ongoing, we must all remain mobilized, ”said the elected official in his message to the attention of the inhabitants, posted at midday. The prefecture has invited residents of the area not to open their windows.
The authorities of the small town of some 8,000 inhabitants have transformed a gymnasium into a reception site for the inhabitants affected by the disaster. A psychological support center has been set up by the prefecture.
“We are on a very heavy balance sheet, something quite catastrophic. Fortunately, the neighbors gave the alert fairly quickly, with a very rapid intervention, ”said in the evening on the spot the Secretary of State in charge of the City, Sabrina Agresti-Roubache. “I will make a point at the gymnasium to see the families, the necessary relocations […] Today France is in mourning,” she added.
“Deep emotion thinking of the families of the three victims”, declared on X, formerly Twitter, the Minister Delegate for Housing, Patrice Vergriete. On the same network, the Secretary of State in charge of the City, Sabrina Agresti-Roubache, announced that she would go there, where she is expected around 7:30 p.m.
An investigation for “research of the causes of death” was opened and entrusted to the judicial police service of the department, indicated the parquet floor of Bobigny, specifying that they have for the moment “no precise information on the origin of the fire”.
Scheduled renovation
In September 2021, a non-lethal fire had already broken out in the stairwell of the same tower, according to Jacques Paris, deputy mayor in charge of heritage and public space. Since then, the buildings have been bought by the social landlord Seine-Saint-Denis habitat.
“We had demanded that the buyer make real renovations” of this city “which dates from the early 1970s” and “is no longer up to current standards”, he explained. Its “heavy renovation” was “planned”, added the deputy mayor to AFP.
The prefect Pantèbre indicated that “the investigation (was) in progress on the state of the building”. “An architect is in the process of appraising the building to find out if the inhabitants can be relocated this (Saturday) evening,” she added.
The city in shock
In the Thorez city, the emotion was palpable among the sixty inhabitants gathered outside. According to some of them, a room, on the ground floor of a neighboring building, has been reserved for the reception of the bodies of the deceased. A man came out in tears, cared for by relatives.
“Someone inside called me and I called my family. Everyone came out by the stairs except for the people from 10, 11, 12 who couldn’t get out,” 21-year-old Jehovana Mvula, a nursing student, told AFP, sitting on a concrete block near the building. . According to her, this is the fourth fire since 2014.
“We left right away,” confirms his father, Maurice Mvula, who lives on the eighth floor. “There were very big smokes”, adds this retired carpenter. “I went downstairs and knocked on the doors, there was no alarm going off or anything. It was word of mouth” that made it possible to warn the inhabitants, testifies alongside them Roger Okitachungu, who says he is “traumatized”.
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