“The establishment was not up to safety standards to accommodate the public”, affirmed, Thursday, August 10, to Le Monde Nathalie Kielwasser, vice-prosecutor of Colmar, the day after the fire of a lodging in Wintzenheim, in the Haut-Rhin, having caused the death of eleven people.
The first investigations show that the building – which included two lodgings on two levels for a reception capacity of twenty places – had not been subjected to the examination, however obligatory, of a safety commission, as envisaged by the texts in force, when an establishment receives visitors, disabled or not. These provisions make it possible in particular to check the presence of fire doors, fire alarms, for example, which could have limited the consequences of the tragedy.
Eleven people died on Wednesday morning in the fire at this holiday cottage. The premises were then occupied by a group of disabled adults and their companions. The building hosted two groups of adults for the holidays, supervised by two native associations, according to Nathalie Kielwasser, one from Besançon and the other from Nancy: Oxygen adapted holidays.
“Not sufficient” smoke detectors
“If you want to drive a car, you need a license, if you want to host people, you have to go through this [safety] commission which gives you recommendations on the capacity, etc. We are going to impose a certain number of security rules on you, ”explained the magistrate to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The building, a recently renovated barn, did have smoke detectors “but not enough for this type of structure,” she added: “The smoke detectors are up to standard, but they are not smoke detectors. smoke that is posed in structures housing the public. »
While the investigators continue their investigations, “we cannot at the moment verify whether or not there were fire extinguishers”, warned the representative of the prosecution. “You have to legally correlate the reason for the disaster and does it have a link with the safety rules. I do not have the return of the criminal investigations at the moment, ”she concluded.
The lodge housed a total of 28 people, including 16 on the floors that burned down. According to the deputy mayor of Wintzenheim, the owner had signed a contract for 16 people. The question of respecting this gauge is “still in progress” of expertise specified Ms. Kielwasser.
At this stage, the investigation remains open for “search for the causes of death”. A judicial inquiry could be opened in the coming days. The owner of the cottage, who had warned the firefighters, was heard on Wednesday as a witness by the gendarmes.
