The holiday home in eastern France in which 11 people died after a fire broke out on Wednesday (August 9) morning had not passed the safety checks required to enable it to house members of the public, it has emerged.
The blaze is the deadliest to happen in France since the Rouen bar fire tragedy in 2016.
It happened at a gîte in La Forge, near Wintzenheim, close to the German border in Haut-Rhin, Grand Est.
A group of mentally disabled people were on holiday at the property when the fire broke out.
Read more: Eleven people dead after fire at holiday home in France
The vice-prosecutor of Colmar, Nathalie Kielwasser, has now announced that the 500m2 home - 300m2 of which was destroyed in the blaze - did not meet the standards required to protect it against fire and house members of the public.
“The gîte had not undergone the mandatory safety commission inspection [and] did not have the characteristics required to receive members of the public,” she told the AFP, confirming a report by France Bleu and the newspaper L’Alsace.
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“If you want to drive a car, you need a licence; if you want to accommodate people, you need to pass this inspection, which gives you recommendations on accommodation capacity etc. We impose a certain number of safety rules.”
Ms Kielwasser said the property had smoke detectors “but not enough for this type of structure” and “not the kind that you install in properties that house the public”. She added that “we cannot, for now, determine whether there were fire extinguishers or not”.
"We need to make a legal correlation between the reason for the fire and whether it was related to safety regulations,” she said. “I haven't heard back from the criminal investigations yet.”
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Two teams from the l’Institut de recherche criminelle de la gendarmerie nationale (IRCGN) are visiting the scene to continue investigations. A mobile lab has been set up to help identify victims, with DNA testing and results that are expected within two to three days.
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Another team is investigating the possible causes of the blaze and modelling the space in 3D in an effort to determine what happened.
The owner of the accommodation is said to be suffering from shock. The cause of the blaze has not yet been determined but it is thought to have started on the second floor.
Local deputy mayor Daniel Leroy said the accommodation - which had two storeys and several attics - had been operating “for several years without any problems” and that the owner had signed a contract for 16 people to stay in the property.
The property was housing 28 people in total, including 16 people on the second floor.
The Minister for Disabled People, Fadila Khattabi, visited the area on Thursday (August 10) to meet with people who have been affected by the tragedy. Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne and the French Minister for Solidarity and Family, Aurore Bergé, visited yesterday.
Ms Borne said: “My first thoughts are with the victims and their families. I salute the fire brigade’s response.”
President Emmanuel Macron posted his condolences on X (formerly Twitter), stating: “In the face of this tragedy, my thoughts are with the victims, the injured and their families. Thank you to our security forces and our emergency services.”
‘Doubly miraculous’ escape
One woman, 25, who has slight learning difficulties, had been staying on the second floor, managed to escape by jumping from a window. Her fall was cushioned by another resident, who helped to ‘catch’ her as she jumped.
"She managed to jump from the first-floor window to save herself,” said Denis Renaud, president of the Nancy adult and child mental disability association l'AEIM (Adultes enfants inadaptés mentaux), to BFMTV, after speaking with the escapee. “It was an absolute miracle given the circumstances.
“She was totally resilient [and saved] by her survival instinct,” he said. “She said she was woken by the noise of the fire and didn’t understand what was happening. She wanted to get out, so she opened the door, and was met by an orange wall [of fire].
“She understood that it was a fire, so she closed the door and wanted to return to her bedroom but she heard and saw objects falling. Her survival instinct kicked in, and she opened the window, saw another resident on the floor below who had got out, who saw her, and she then jumped into their arms,” he said.
Before jumping, the woman called out to other people on the floor, into at least two other bedrooms, but did not hear anything.
“She was doubly miraculous,” said Mr Renaud. “Firstly, because she woke up when the others weren’t so lucky, and secondly because there was someone there to break her fall.”
Four other members of the AEIM, who were staying with the young people in the gîte, did not survive.
Vice-prosecutor Ms Kielwasser has so far said: “We don’t know why they became trapped. [Given the type of structure] the wood should have burned for a few hours before collapsing.”
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