The holiday camp in Wintzenheim in eastern France, which caught fire on Wednesday killing 11 people, did not meet fire safety standards, Colmar’s deputy public prosecutor said on Thursday.
“The accommodation was not subject to the mandatory security inspection” and “did not have the necessary characteristics to receive people,” said Nathalie Kielwasser.
The resort, a recently remodeled former barn, had smoke detectors, “but not enough for these types of structures,” the deputy prosecutor said.
While investigators continue their work, “we cannot, at this time, verify whether or not there were fire extinguishers,” he added.
The fire started around 06:30 local time (05:30 in Lisbon) this Wednesday, in the holiday center for people with disabilities in the town of Wintzenheim, in Alsace, in the Upper Rhine department.
The center’s owner, who alerted firefighters early Wednesday morning, is in shock and has not been arrested.
“We have to legally correlate the reason for the disaster and whether there is any connection to safety standards. At the moment, I do not have the results of the criminal investigations,” said Nathalie Kielwasser.
By Wednesday afternoon, the deputy prosecutor’s office had already confirmed the death of 11 people in the fire. The victims included a supervisor and ten adults with mild cognitive impairments.
The administration of the Upper Rhine region said in a statement that of the 28 people staying there, 17 were evacuated from the center, including one who was transferred to a hospital in a context of “relative urgency.”
This fire is the deadliest recorded in France in the last seven years, after a bar fire in Rouen in 2016, which caused 14 deaths.
Source: TSF
