• A fire broke out around 3 a.m. in a seven-storey building in Vaulx-en-Velin, near Lyon.

  • At least ten people were killed, including five children between the ages of 3 and 15, and 19 others were injured.

  • Residents are in shock, waiting to hear from their loved ones.

  • Some point to the dilapidated state of the building.

    "All the conditions were met for a disaster", points out one of them.

“We tell ourselves that it only happens to others, but today the others are us, our children, our brothers, our sisters.

“A home delivery person, Zenoudine went, with other residents, to 12 chemin des Barques, in Vaulx-en-Velin, in the metropolis of Lyon.

Around 3 a.m. on Friday, a fire broke out in this seven-storey building, killing ten people, including five children aged 3 to 15, and injuring 19 others, four of whom are between life and death.

“I tried to call one of my clients who lives there, but he didn't answer.

It's anxiety, ”continues Zenoudine.

Faced with this assessment, the emotion is very strong in the district of Mas du Taureau, alignment of bars of buildings surrounded by car parks and rare stripped green spaces.

“The fire started on the ground floor and went upstairs.

My cousin got stuck and remains missing.

We are waiting for the police and firefighters to tell us if she is on the list of deceased persons, ”says Murat Kara, a resident of the district who came to the Espace Benoît Frachon, a multipurpose room where the relatives of the victims are cared for.

"Her husband threw himself from the balcony on the 2nd floor, he is in the hospital with a broken arm", continues Murat painfully, visibly very shaken.

A child “thrown by his mother to save him”

Assed Belal, a 19-year-old local resident, was at the scene during the fire.

"I heard people shouting 'Help, help, help, help us!'

There were people on the ground, others blocked on the balconies and the firefighters had difficulty in intervening because of the trees.

My friends told me that they had managed to catch up with a 10-year-old”: his mother, taking refuge on a balcony on the third or fourth floor, “threw him to save him”.



The facade of the white building, barely blackened, does not betray the drama.

The 170 firefighters intervened quickly, but without being able to prevent the irreparable.

“One of my students told me this morning that his cousin had jumped out of the second story window.

People are shocked, one of my parents' neighbors told me that his 20-year-old daughter was in the building and he still hasn't heard from him,” reports Samir, a vocational high school math teacher. neighbor of the Canuts.

“50 meters away is the Jean-Vilar primary school.

I don't even dare to imagine my fellow teachers who were on roll call this morning and who had to tell kids aged 4, 5, 10 that there were problems nearby and that…”

Deal point and degraded building

Under the biting cold, many rumors are already circulating among local residents, in particular about the responsibility of the occupants of a deal point at the entrance to the building.

Gérald Darmanin, who went there in the morning, confirmed "25 arrests for drug trafficking in this street" since January 1, the last having been operated "that same night" at the address of the building .

But, he said, "it is far too early to draw conclusions."

The Minister of the Interior also recalled that an investigation was underway to determine the origin of the fire.

All the conditions were in place for a disaster

Sofa fire, garbage cans, boiler problem, defective lamp: the potential leads are numerous, but the state of the building is at the heart of the recriminations of the Vaudais, some of whom have directly challenged the socialist mayor, Hélène Geoffroy.

“The building was abandoned, the doors were open all the time downstairs (…) It wouldn't surprise me if it caught fire because of this negligence and the aging equipment”, plague Zenoudine.

"Everything is deteriorating, nothing is repaired"

"All the conditions were met for a disaster", abounds Souhil Zaidi, 54-year-old real estate agent.

“It's the kind of building, where people buy and rent to people who can't rent elsewhere, who don't participate in meetings and so everything deteriorates, nothing is repaired.

You go up in one of these elevators, well you get scared, ”he says.

“Many tenants were expecting this kind of disaster.

I know people who left because it was unlivable,” confirms Murat Kara.

In a press release, the metropolis confirmed that the building was part of a set of "degraded" condominiums for which it had voted a safeguard plan in January.

“This tragedy should encourage us to be more reactive regarding safety in collective housing”, estimated MP LR Alexandre Vincendet in a press release, pleading for a fire risk diagnosis to be launched on all housing reported by elected officials. local.

"We hope that this media coverage will make things happen," complains Zenoudine.

There, the prefect and the others are going to come and put on their show, but in real life we ​​have the impression that they have absolutely nothing to do with it.

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Miscellaneous facts

Fire in Vaulx-en-Velin: At least ten dead, the victims being identified… Details of the tragedy

Policy

Unsanitary housing: Why are buildings collapsing today in France?

  • Miscellaneous facts

  • Vaulx-en-velin

  • Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes

  • Fire