“The fire started in the hotel’s boiler room and quickly spread to the neighbouring building,” reports Captain Christophe Rodier, this Tuesday, July 2, 2024, while around forty firefighters are still trying, under his command, to control the fire that broke out in the Hôtel de France, in Isigny-sur-Mer, just before 1 p.m.
The alarm was raised by a customer but it was too late for the teams at the 2* establishment to put out the flames using a fire extinguisher.
Seventeen people evacuated
“When the first van arrived on site, the room where the fuel tank was located was already completely ablaze and the flames were coming out of the roof,” continues the firefighter, head of the Vire rescue center. It is precisely through the roof that the fire continued to eat away at the hotel, which is built around a large interior courtyard on Rue Emile-Demagny.
Although the main building of the establishment, containing in particular the kitchens and the large reception room, was able to be preserved, three rooms located at the back and overlooking the Aure were destroyed.
In total, seventeen people, including seven employees, were evacuated and taken care of by the firefighters. “None of them were injured or even affected by the fumes.”
The complete hotel
At 3 p.m., a strong smell of fuel oil persists in the streets of the town. A slight risk of spread still exists on the scene, but for the teams of the emergency centers of Bayeux, Caen-Couvrechef, Carentan, Creully, Caen-Ifs, Isigny, Le Molay-Littry, Ouistreham and Vire, “the worst is behind us.”
At the start of summer, the Hôtel de France and its twenty rooms are fully booked. In the establishment’s large room, which can accommodate up to 50 people, “Banquets are also planned every day,” said Maryline Boyer, the owner of the place, stunned by the disaster that had just struck her.
