An explosion followed by a fire occurred Monday evening in a building in the center of La Rochelle.
A 63-year-old woman died and around twenty residents had to be urgently evacuated.
A TF1 team went to the site.
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The 1 p.m.
After the explosion, the roof of the building was completely gutted, as shown in the images which opened the TF1 1 p.m. report above. Juliette, owner of an apartment on the first floor, came to see the damage this Tuesday morning. “A priori, everything is fine, the structure has held up, so it’s quite reassuring, and the tenant will be able to return to the apartment tonight.”she testifies in front of our camera. “We are never safe. And unfortunately, a tragedy happened…”she adds.
Monday evening, shortly after 7 p.m., as explained in the article linked below, a violent explosion caused a fire in a three-story building in the historic center of La Rochelle. A thick layer of smoke then escapes from the building. The residents hear the frame collapsing, the roof collapsing on the top floor. A 63-year-old woman did not survive.
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Throughout the evening, 45 firefighters were mobilized to secure the scene. “This is a major intervention because you need to know that city centers are still very intertwined, underlines Captain Pascal Cousseau, commander of Sdis 17 relief operations, to TF1. The buildings are inside each other, with roofs that can overlap. And there was a fairly significant risk of propagation on neighboring roofs.“.
Two students who live next door witnessed the entire scene. “I was at home and I heard a fairly large explosion, between two storms, so I’m asking myself a few questionssays one of them. I look out my window and see the whole building on fire, with a huge pile of smoke“. There were “a lot of flames, it was quite impressivedescribes the other. We say to ourselves that it could have been at our place, it’s really close by so it’s scary“.
As a precaution, twenty people had to evacuate. This Tuesday morning, Sixtine was able to return to her apartment in the neighboring building. “I’m relieved that my apartment has nothingshe confides. You never know what can happen with buildings this old, some of them even dilapidated.“. The fire is now extinguished. An investigation is open to determine the origin of this explosion.
