Eleven people “potentially died” on Wednesday August 9 following a fire in a guesthouse welcoming disabled people in Wintzenheim, near Colmar, according to the Haut-Rhin prefecture.
“Unfortunately, there are not many doubts: all these people were present in the lodging and could not come out,” said the secretary general of the Haut-Rhin prefecture, Christophe Marot, present on the spot. A previous point mentioned eleven people who were “missing”.
In addition, according to the prefecture, seventeen people were evacuated and one, in relative urgency, was evacuated to hospital. The missing people are a supervisor and ten adults with mild mental disabilities, Mr. Marot told Agence France-Presse, saying he had “no information” on the causes of the disaster.
The fire broke out around 6:30 a.m. The Alsatian-style half-timbered building was the scene of a “generalized conflagration,” according to firefighters. “300 square meters were set ablaze, on a building of 500 square meters”, describes the prefecture, confirming that “the fire was quickly brought under control despite the violence of the flames”.
“Everything burned”
Seventy-six firefighters were mobilized. The cottage had been rented for the holidays by a Lorraine association for the disabled. The building is an old barn renovated into a 500 square meter gite, with two floors and an attic, according to firefighters, who said the fire started on the ground floor.
“The building is completely destroyed, reported on BFM-TV Daniel Leroy, deputy mayor of the Alsatian commune. There remains the ground floor, a little less affected. But the accommodation floor, there is nothing left, everything has burned down. »
The elected official also said that the missing persons were “all adults, there are no children”. “The building hosted for the holidays, two groups of adults with disabilities, supervised by two associations,” wrote the Haut-Rhin prefecture in a press release.
The Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, announced in the morning to go there, accompanied by Aurore Bergé, Minister of Solidarity and Families. “My first thoughts are with the victims and their loved ones,” she added on X (formerly Twitter). I salute the mobilization of the firefighters. »
“Faced with this tragedy, my thoughts are with the victims, the injured, their loved ones,” Emmanuel Macron also wrote on X. “Thank you to our security forces and our mobilized rescue services. »