series of fires in the city centre of Bergerac

At least seven fires were lit, during the night of Monday 1st to Tuesday 2nd July, in the city centre of Bergerac (Dordogne). Containers and rubbish bins reduced to ashes, charred cars, shop fronts and front doors burned… On Tuesday 2nd July in the morning, one could almost retrace the incendiary walk of the arsonist(s).

According to reports, the fires broke out between 2:30 a.m. and 4 a.m. They only caused material damage: no injuries were reported.

The most serious was the fire in a hybrid car on Rue Eugène-Le-Roy. It spread to the facade of a disused bar and the gas box inside, causing the pipe to leak and catch fire. “It must have been around 4 a.m.,” says a neighbor. “I heard a big boom! I went outside thinking it was a burglar and saw flames nearly three meters high.”

Two trucks, a mobile command post and around fifteen firefighters were mobilised to put out the fire, with the help of the police and the network manager GRDF which, for security reasons, deprived nearly 200 subscribers of gas for a brief period.

Trash cans

To extinguish the other arson attacks in Bergerac, firefighters were sent as reinforcements from the Lalinde and Mussidan centres. In the station district, at the corner of Rue Cantelauve and Rue Chabonnel, a garbage container was set alight and the fire spread to a car.

Several containers also burned completely in front of the former community centre, on Place Jules-Ferry, as well as a street bin. Two other fires were lit on bin bags, which had been taken out onto the pavement by individuals, on Rue Saint-Louis and Place des Deux-Conils.

In the pedestrian street of Mourier, a pile of cardboard boxes was set alight in front of the Japanese restaurant Le Choko, damaging the window.