It was through a phone call from a friend, around 6 a.m., that she learned that her catering restaurant had been destroyed by fire: “when he insisted on talking about a fire, I stood up suddenly, I rushed“explains Seynabou Diagne. She then discovers that her establishment “La cuisine de Zaynab”, open since spring 2023, has been reduced to ashes.
The The fire that destroyed his restaurant and the neighboring cafe, and affected seven other businesses, started in a car that was apparently intentionally started in a pedestrian alley of the shopping center, then set on fire. More than twenty firefighters were mobilized from 5 a.m. to put out the flames. No arrests had been made by the end of the day Friday.
“It’s a passion”
“I am disappointed and devastated at the same time, says Seynabou Diagne. What did I do to deserve this? I don’t understand why we break or burn everything, she said, without going into details about the arsonists’ motivations. Last year, during the riots, the fire stopped just before my restaurant. This time, I am not spared.”
Despite everything, the restaurateur who works part-time as an AESH at the Poitiers hospital does not want to give up: “I’m not going to get discouragedcooking is a passion, she says. I called my customers this Friday morning, I was sorry I couldn’t fulfill their orders, one of them offered to pay me anyway! It’s nice, but I was mostly thinking about her, what will she do if I can’t make the meal for her party?”
“Rebuilding the Crownworks”
The restaurateur filed a complaint at the police station and now deals with insurance issues. She does not know if and when her commercial unit will be usable again: work in the part of the shopping center burned a year ago during the riots was only expected to begin in the coming weeks.
“I want to see things bigger, says Seynabou Diagne. What happened causes fear, but we must not let a small minority scare us. I’m going to re-establish my restaurant. I received lots of messages of encouragement, so for that, I would like to be one of the people who will revive the Coronaries.”
