The fire, according to French media, broke out early in the morning in a cottage of about 500 square meters, offering accommodation for adults with mild disabilities, near the city of Colmar. After being alerted this morning at 6:30 am, 76 firefighters were busy putting out the fire, while the prefecture mobilized at least 40 units of the local gendarmerie.
A fire at a nursing home in Winzenheim, Alsace, killed 11 people. This is reported by the assistant prosecutor of the Republic of Colmar, Natalie Kilwasser, according to French media. Kilwasser confirmed that the people on the first floor of the building “are all alive, and five people at the top managed” to escape. “The other eleven are dead,” he confirmed. French Prime Minister Elisabeth Born, who arrived at the scene, said it was “a tragedy that affects us all.” “It is too early to draw lessons from this tragedy, an investigation is underway.”
“Thank you to our security forces and our mobilized emergency services,” President Emmanuel Macron tweeted.
Published in Il Mattino di Padova.