This family, originally from Chaumont in Haute-Marne, had come to spend the weekend in Alsace. The parents, accompanied by their four children, had rented a gîte in an old farmhouse, rue de la Mairie in Furdenheim, a small town of around 1,500 inhabitants about fifteen kilometers west of Strasbourg.
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Around 4:50 a.m., the neighbor, who shares the courtyard of this furnished tourist accommodation, was worried by the loud noises. “I heard tapping, tapping, tapping. At first I thought someone was trying to break down the door. I understood later that it was the dad who was trying to get out. »
Via her video surveillance camera, the thirty-year-old “saw people in the courtyard”. When she opened the door, she was hit by a very strong smell of smoke. “A neighbor told me: “Come out quickly with your children, there’s a fire!” » Upstairs, she went to pick up her little ones, aged 2, 6 and 8 years old. After getting them to safety, she returned to the yard.
This lady kept repeating: “My daughter, my daughter, my daughter!”
“I saw this poor family… This lady who kept repeating: “My daughter, my daughter, my daughter!” And this father who screamed: “I couldn’t save her!” » The neighbor didn’t realize it right away. “Beside them, there were already three little girls. I realized later that there was still one inside. »
Despite the thick smoke, the parents managed to shelter three of their children. The fourth, aged 10, remained trapped upstairs, despite the attempts of her relatives and neighbors, who arrived as reinforcements, to help her.
Around sixty firefighters and around twenty engines were dispatched to the scene. The emergency services “climbed directly onto the roof” of the rental. They “took out” the little victim “via the Velux”. In cardiorespiratory arrest, she was transported in absolute emergency to the Hautepierre University Hospital in Strasbourg.
After a period of coma, the girl, aged 10, died there on Monday November 25.
“No alarm”?
The toll, already dramatic, could have been even heavier. “The parents were “lucky” to hear the crackling,” analyzes the neighbor. At the time of the fire, this mother was categorical: she heard “no alarm” coming from the home.
The investigation was entrusted by the Strasbourg public prosecutor’s office to the Truchtersheim gendarmerie brigade with the support of the Strasbourg research brigade. The owner of the lodge was interviewed for the first time on Sunday. Investigations are continuing, in particular to determine the presence of smoke detectors in the accommodation.
The fire apparently started from a radiator
A fire expert, sent on Sunday, concluded that the fire started from an electric radiator, installed on the ground floor. The smoke would have quickly risen upstairs where three of the couple’s four children were sleeping – only the smallest was downstairs with her parents.
Other assessments, particularly electrical, will have to be carried out.
Was “The Sorcerers Suite” declared?
Decorated on the theme of Harry Potter, the furnished apartment on rue de la Mairie had been rented for “a little over a year and a half”, estimates the neighbor. “There were often people there, it worked well, especially during the festive period and during the holidays.”
On its Instagram account, “La Suite des Sorciers” highlights “a fully equipped apartment of 110 m2 on three floors for six people” in which you could sleep in the “Slytherin” or “Gryffindor” rooms.
At Furdenheim town hall, we are surprised. “A priori, there had been no declaration,” we note within his services. However, “this process is obligatory before any rental of furnished tourist accommodation”. The lodge is not among the twelve accommodations in the town listed on the Kochersberg tourist office website.
G. L.
Belgium
