The fire in a building near Lyon in central-eastern France killed ten people, including five children, and injured fourteen, including four in serious condition, overnight from Thursday to Friday. The fire, of which the origin is unknown “, is “ now extinct “, specifies the prefecture in a press release.
The fire broke out shortly after 3 a.m. (2 a.m. UT) in a 7-storey building in the town of Vaulx-en-Velin. The flames started from the ground floor to spread upstairs. The disaster mobilized nearly 170 firefighters and two of them were slightly injured during the intervention, according to the prefecture.
An investigation will have to determine the causes of this fire, declared the Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin, just before leaving Paris to go there: ” Unfortunately, 10 people are said to have died, including 5 children aged between 3 and 15, and 4 people are seriously injured in a fire whose causes are not yet known. So, obviously, I wouldn’t want to dwell on this point, but very quickly, the investigation, I’m sure, will be able to bring it up. Some 180 firefighters arrived that night and tried to rescue as many people as possible in very difficult conditions. This is obviously a shock given the extremely serious balance sheet. I spoke with the President of the Republic throughout the night. And with the Minister of Housing, I will be there in a few minutes “.
A large security perimeter has been deployed and this Friday morning, the emergency services are busy on the spot in a ballet of ambulances, trucks and flashing lights. Findings are underway to determine the causes of the fire, according to a spokesperson for the prefecture on site.
A district undergoing urban renewal
The fire occurred in the Mas du Taureau district, in full urban renewal after having long been the symbol of neighborhoods under tension in the Lyon suburbs. The metropolis launched in the early 2000s a program of 100 million euros to rethink what was to become an eco-district, develop local shops, develop public transport.
Last July, five people, including a child, all from the Comoros, died in a fire in a building in the center of Bressuire (west). In February, eight people – including a baby and a two-year-old child from the same family – died in the fire of three buildings overnight in Saint-Laurent-de-la-Salanque (south).
(and with AFP)