After the death of one of their own, at the age of 56, the Orsini family thought they had had enough. These Bastiais were not, however, at the end of their sentence. Because when the funeral directors received the body, a few days ago, they had another bad news: the cremationplanned for Ondina cemeteryin Bastia, will finally take place in Ajaccio. “We were told that the crematorium oven was brokenlaments a family member. We were therefore forced to go to Ajaccio on Tuesday to attend the cremation. It makes grieving more difficult.”
The relatives of the deceased will not recover thefuneral urn that this Saturday, May 4 for burial. This means if the time of grief is still long. This family is not the only one in this situation. Since April 26, a technical breakdown no longer allows the Ondina crematorium to operate, confirm the municipal services. The delegatee informed the funeral operators that repairs were “in progress”.
“Since last week, we have had to divert seven bodies to Ajaccio for cremations”
The fact remains that this technical hazard is not without consequences for families and funeral directors. “Since last week, we have had to divert seven bodies towards Ajaccioexplain Guy Morgantigeneral director of Corsican funeral directors. It’s difficult for families. In order not to add additional financial costs to their pain, we take into account the transport costs that this entails, for the moment, but we hope that the situation will be restored quickly.”
“We have never been faced with such a long operating shutdown”
Should we see in this breakdown the sign of a lack of maintenance on this cremation device put into service in November 2013, when the cemetery opened? THE city delegate assures that this hazard was not foreseeable. “The machine is well maintained and, in ten years, we have never been faced with such a long downtime due to a breakdownassures Thierry Breteau, deputy general director of the Bastia crematorium company. The breakage occurred at the oven door. We do everything we can to fix it as quickly as possible to meet the expectations of families. However, we are unable to repair immediately, because we are dependent on the delivery of parts from the Continent.”
A refurbished device
At this stage, site managers are counting on a resumption of cremations in middle of next week. Without, however, committing to a specific date. After this hazard, the operator nevertheless promises that the device will be renovated. “We planned to install a new machine this summersays Thierry Breteau. This was part of the specifications of the public service delegation of the city, which was renewed in November 2023, to improve the quality of service provided to families.”
