In Alsace, on France’s eastern border, 11 people “potentially died” in a fire in a house rented by a disability association. From the statements made by the Upper Rhine Governorate, Elisabeth Borne, who is serving as the Prime Minister, is also going to the region considering the seriousness of the incident.
The alarm was triggered at around 6:30 am when firefighters alerted a fire in a building where disabled people and their supervisors were staying in Wintzenheim, near Colmar in the Haut-Rhin. Initially, the governor’s office spoke of “missing” people, but as the hours passed, the terms changed and there are now reports of eleven people “potentially dead” due to the fire at the building. “Unfortunately, there is not much doubt: All these people were in the cabin and could not get out,” Christophe Marot, secretary general of the Haut-Rhin province, who was present at the scene, told local media. . According to the information learned from the governor’s office, 17 people were evacuated and one was taken to the hospital under emergency conditions. Marot told Agence France-Presse that a supervisor and ten adults with mild intellectual disabilities were missing. Instead, “any element” is missing on the causes of the disaster.
The cottage had been rented for a vacation by a Lorraine charity caring for the disabled. The building is a former barn converted into a 500m2 accommodation with two floors and an attic. The fire department stated that the fire started from the ground floor and that the Alsatian-style building was the scene of a “general fire”. The governor’s office stated that “300 square meters of a 500 square meter building were set on fire”. Officials said that “despite the intensity of the flames, the fire was extinguished in a short time” thanks to the sudden mobilization of seventy-six firefighters. “The building has been completely destroyed,” Daniel Leroy, deputy mayor of Alsace, told Bfm-Tv. Only the ground floor is slightly less affected, but nothing remains of the floor of the accommodation. Leroy also said the missing persons were “all adults, not children”.
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne announced that she would go to the scene of the accident in the morning, accompanied by the Minister for Solidarity and Families, Aurore Bergé. “My first thoughts are with the victims and their loved ones,” he wrote on the X platform (formerly Twitter), thanking the firefighters for their swift mobilization. A similar message was posted by President Emmanuel Macron on the same social network.
Source: Today IT
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
