The residence was rented by a group of disabled people accompanied by operators. Firefighters evacuated 17 people. It is difficult to extract the bodies due to the collapse of part of the building
At dawn on Wednesday, a fire broke out in a rest home where a group of people with mild mental disabilities lived in the French city of Winzenheim, a few kilometers from Colmar, in Alsace.
ADVERTISINGFirefighters rescued 17 people and recovered the bodies of 11 victims. Initially, two people went missing, but rescuers already feared the worst. Among the evacuees, only one person was hospitalized, another is in a state of shock, but there are no serious injuries.
Victims were found upstairs and in the collapsed mezzanine, but only six bodies were recovered. The identities of two have also been established. “The difficulty is to get access to the appropriate levels because there is a lot of debris, a lot of destroyed parts and a floor that is very unstable,” Lieutenant Colonel Philip Howwiller, commander of the operation, told reporters on the spot. save.
The building where the fire broke out is an old restored barn with two floors and an attic. The building was rented by two groups of invalids, accompanied by two different associations, one from Besançon and the other from Nancy.
According to Le Monde, the celebration was organized by the specialized travel agency Oxygène vacances Adaptée in Nancy, with which the city’s disabled associations have been cooperating for some time.
At the moment, the causes of the fire are unknown, but an investigation has already been launched, entrusted to the assistant prosecutor of Colmar, Natalie Kielwasser. According to preliminary information, there could be coals in the source of ignition, although the cause has not yet been determined.
Around 6.30 am, firefighters were informed by the owner of the building, who lives nearby. Rescuers arrived at the scene at 6:45 am.
When Deputy Mayor Daniel Leroy arrived about seven o’clock, “there was nothing left.” “The top of the building was completely burned out and the roof completely collapsed,” he said. According to him, the invaders “were caught sleeping, everyone was sleeping.”
“In the face of this tragedy, my thoughts go out to the victims, the injured and their families,” President Emmanuel Macron tweeted on X (formerly Twitter). French Prime Minister Elisabeth Born, who visited the scene in the afternoon, called the incident “a terrible tragedy.”