The holiday camp in Wintzenheim, in eastern France, which burned down on Wednesday, killing 11 people, did not meet fire safety standards, Colmar’s deputy prosecutor said Thursday.
“The accommodation was not subject to a mandatory security inspection” and “did not have the necessary features to receive people,” said Nathalie Kielwasser.
The holiday center, an old barn recently refurbished, had smoke detectors, “but not enough for this type of construction,” said the deputy prosecutor.
While investigators continue their work, “we can’t currently verify whether or not fire extinguishers were there,” he added.
The fire broke out at around 6:30 a.m. local time (5:30 a.m. in Lisbon) on Wednesday at the holiday center for people with disabilities in the town of Wintzenheim, in the Alsace region of the Upper Rhine department.
The owner of the center, who alerted the fire brigade early on Wednesday, is in a state of shock and has not been arrested.
“We have to legally link the cause of the disaster and whether there is a connection with safety regulations. At the moment I do not have the outcome of the criminal investigation,” said Nathalie Kielwasser.
On Wednesday afternoon, the deputy prosecutor had already confirmed the deaths of 11 people in the fire. The victims include a supervisor and 10 adults with mild cognitive impairment.
The administration of the Upper Rhine region said in a statement that of the 28 people housed there, 17 were evacuated from the center, including one who was taken to a hospital in a context of “relative urgency”.
This fire is the deadliest recorded in France in the past seven years, following a bar fire in Rouen in 2016 that killed 14 people.
Source: DN
