Three people died in the fire of a five-storey building in the historic center of Grasse (Alpes-Maritimes), which occurred on Sunday morning August 13 and is now extinguished, firefighters announced. The emergency services also counted one seriously injured and sixteen minor injuries.
“The Alpes-Maritimes departmental fire and rescue operational center received in the middle of the night, around 3 a.m., numerous calls for a significant release of smoke in an apartment building,” the firefighters said. Arrived on the spot, the emergency services found that a virulent fire was spreading in the stairwell of a five-storey building located on the Place aux Aires, several people appearing at the windows.
“An alarm started to beep, then I heard screams, and that’s what woke me up,” Martine, who lives on the second floor (and prefers not to give his surname). “A woman called for help, shouting ‘fire’ and asked to call the fire department, which I did. Above her floor, a man tried to descend to escape the flames and then he fell,” she added.
Ongoing investigation
The captain of the firefighters Aymeric Soufflet told AFP that there were “possibly” among the injured people who would have defenestrated to escape the flames.
A security cordon has been set up around this historic square in Grasse. At least three floors – those at the top – were affected by fire, out of the five in this building, part of the facade of which is blackened, noted an AFP correspondent on the spot. Seized, the judicial police also installed a barnum in front of the building to make the first findings. The bodies of the victims were evacuated in vans parked in the security perimeter.
“The investigation is underway to determine the origin of the incident,” the Grasse prosecutor’s office told AFP. The relocation of around twenty people will be necessary, said the firefighters.
