Eleven people have died in a fire at a holiday home for disabled people in north-east France.
The death toll was confirmed by a public prosecutor after firefighters spent hours combing the destroyed building – a converted barn – for the bodies of victims.
The private gîte at Wintzenheim in the Haut-Rhin, near Colmar, had been hired by a group from Nancy for the holidays.
Lt Col Philippe Hauwiller, of the fire service said the bodies had been found on the first floor of the building and were identified by drones.
Hauwiller added: “It’s hard to say at this stage how the fire started or how it spread so quickly and with such intensity. Some people from the first floor managed to escape, but most of those who escaped were from the ground floor.”
Gendarmes and firefighters attempted to remove the bodies from the building, a task complicated because more than half of the building had been destroyed.
The fire broke out around 6.30am, shortly after which a call was made to the emergency services.
“We arrived quickly, within a quarter of an hour, and the fire had spread throughout the building,” Hauwiller said. “Seventeen people had escaped but sadly, given the situation, 11 people were still in the building for whom no action was possible.
He said that given the ferocity of the fire the victims were most likely dead by the time the firefighters arrived. Recovering their bodies had been complicated by the extensive damage to the gîte, he added. “Everyone from the ground floor was able to escape but not everyone on the first floor could reach the exits.”
Nathalie Kielwasser, the deputy public prosecutor at Colmar, confirmed that 11 people had died in the fire. The guests were described as having “minor mental disabilities”.
The prosecutor said the unnamed owner of the gîte, who lived opposite, was being questioned by investigators but it was too early to say how the fire had started or if the property conformed to safety regulations.
“As you can imagine [the gîte owner] is extremely shocked. It was she who raised the alarm and who heard the victims crying for help,” Kielwasser said.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, tweeted that his thoughts were with “the victims, the injured and their loved ones”.
The prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, arrived in Wintzenheim on Wednesday afternoon.
An investigation into the fire has been opened by the gendarmerie in Strasbourg.
Source : The Guardian