An administrative investigation by the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (IGAS) was opened following the fire that caused the death of eleven people in Wintzenheim (Haut-Rhin), the Minister Delegate announced on Monday August 14. in charge of persons with disabilities. “With the Minister of Solidarity and Families, Aurore Bergé, we have decided to launch (…) an administrative investigation, entrusted to IGAS” following the fire in the gîte where ten people with disabilities died on Wednesday and an accompanying person, announced Fadila Khattabi in an interview with the regional dailies of the Ebra group. “We are expecting the first results quite soon, at the beginning of September,” she added, adding that they will be public.
This administrative investigation was launched in parallel with a preliminary investigation opened by the Paris prosecutor’s office for “involuntary homicides and injuries” “aggravated by the violation of an obligation of safety or prudence provided for by law or regulation”.
According to the town hall of Wintzenheim, the gîte, a renovated barn, had not been declared by its owner. The security commission had not been requested either, according to the Colmar prosecution.
Determine “technical or human failures”
Fadila Khattabi clarified that the two organizations managing trips adapted to people with disabilities “had approval at the time of the tragedy. One of the two had his extended temporarily.” “The judicial inquiry will establish the situation of the lodge, and whether there were any technical or human failures,” she announced.
Asked about the importance of legislating after this tragedy, the minister judged that the legislative arsenal in terms of fire safety was sufficient. “It is a question of knowing if there have been shortcomings, faults, on the administrative level”, also declared the Minister of Solidarity and Families, Aurore Bergé, in Le Parisien on Monday.
“I would also like us to be able to launch a more general mission on the question of suitable holidays to allow us to lay down clearer, stricter rules on the standards imposed, the public concerned, the supervision rate or even the tariffs”, in addition to this “flash mission” of the IGAS, added the minister.
She announced “increased means of control both in nursing homes and in structures that accommodate people with disabilities” in September, and recalled that an increase in staff would be planned for the start of the school year, “with two hundred people in all “. Twenty-eight people were present during the fire. Those living on the ground floor escaped unscathed, like five who were housed upstairs.