Two men died in a fire which broke out in a grocery store in Montpellier during the night from Sunday to Monday. The origin of the fire is believed to be criminal.
A noble gesture, but a tragic outcome. On the night of October 6 to 7, 2024, around 4 a.m., a fire broke out in a grocery store in the Pas-du-Loup district of Montpellier. The store manager, a 70-year-old man, was still inside the grocery store, trapped, while the flames began to devastate the place. Hearing the man calling for help, three young men who frequent the neighborhood tried to pull him out of the fire. One of the members of the trio tells TF1 Info this Monday, October 7: “There were flames coming out of the grocery store and the grocer was knocking. […] We tried everything we could to open, but it was too barricaded. We didn’t succeed.”
Faced with the impossibility of accessing the interior of the grocery store, one of the three individuals tried to force entry with his car. He managed to enter the grocery store, but immediately found himself stuck, with the septuagenarian, inside the store, the entrance gate having closed behind him. The 29-year-old young man “made several maneuvers to get out, but he didn’t succeed. He was stuck. He couldn’t get out” remembers the witness from TF1 Info. Despite the spontaneous intervention of the three individuals, the grocer and the young man did not survive the blaze. “After ten seconds, we couldn’t hear anything at all,” said the witness. Firefighters called to intervene confirmed the death of the two men when they found their lifeless bodies in the ashes of the grocery store.
A fire of criminal origin
But who set fire to the Montpellier grocery store? According to TF1 Infotwo individuals approaching the business with a container were recorded by video surveillance cameras. One of them was also seen fleeing just minutes before the fire started. “There is a strong chance that we are moving towards arson, or even arson,” estimates Bruno Bartoccetti, the national delegate secretary of the Police Unité union interviewed by our colleagues from the first channel. “Was the intention to kill someone, to burn someone inside? Was the intention only to burn this grocery store? All of this will be worked on and all avenues will be explored “continues the representative of the police. An investigation has also been opened and DNA surveys have been carried out by specialist teams, but several days will be needed to shed light on the origin of the fire.
The fact that the grocery store was targeted surprises local residents: “It’s incomprehensible because it’s not a grocery store that was trafficking, that was selling illegal things,” a resident assured TF1 Info. As for the young man who tried to save the grocer trapped in the flames, he is described as a “young person who took very good care of his little brother, his family” and who “leaves behind him many people in pain “.