The twenty-eight residents of a building located in Elbeuf (Seine-Maritime) were evacuated before the arrival of emergency services on Wednesday November 27. The fire was apparently started by one of the residents. An investigation is underway.
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The flames first emerged from the first floor windows before reaching the roof of the building. At 3 rue Théodore Chennevière in Elbeuf, Wednesday November 27, the fire grew and panic set in. The residents of this collective building fled around 3 p.m. before alerting the firefighters.
On site, emergency services dispatched up to 25 engines and 48 firefighters to try to extinguish the rapidly growing fire. Finally, the disaster was brought under control in the evening, around 7 p.m., while the clearing operations lasted until late in the evening.
The twenty-eight victims of the building all escaped unharmed – without the need for hospitalization – and were gathered in a room for the duration of the intervention. As a precaution, the 150 people in the café of the adjacent theater “Les enfants terribles” were evacuated. Furthermore, the staff of the beauty salon located on the ground floor of the building are on technical unemployment for an indefinite period.
Last night, 16 people including 9 children were rehoused by the social action center. The day after the tragedy, traffic on the street remained interrupted. The town hall will issue a danger order on the building during the day, making it uninhabitable.
Yesterday, around 6 p.m., the police also arrested a pedestrian on the A13 near Tourville-la-Rivière, near Rouen.
The haggard individual turned out to be the tenant of one of the apartments in the burned building in Elbeuf. According to the police, it appears that he was responsible for starting the fire.
However, the psychiatric state of this 34-year-old man did not allow him to be placed in police custody. This Thursday, November 28, he was still hospitalized while waiting for his condition to improve.
He will then potentially be interviewed by the interdepartmental Judicial Police service, which has been entrusted with an investigation into arson.
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