VIDEO. Explosion near Montauban: a lifeless body found in the rubble of the house

Apocalyptic scene this Friday in Meauzac. It was precisely 10:02 a.m. when the departmental fire and rescue service (SDIS 82) was alerted to a house explosion with, potentially, two victims inside. Around 50 firefighters, from the emergency centers of Castelsarrasin-Moissac, Lafrançaise, Montauban, Corbarrieu, Montech and Albias, flocked to the site.

Around ten vehicles, two dog teams, the support and search rescue unit (USAR), a drone pilot, a mobile command post and victim rescue vehicles crisscross the surroundings of this 130 m2 pavilion located on the path de Lestang, less than a kilometer from the center of Meauzac. The house is three-quarters blown away. As a bonus, a fire has just broken out in the basement, while access is completely blocked by rubble.

The only reason for satisfaction: one of the two people sought is located in a business, safe and sound. It remains to find her husband whose vehicle was found burnt in the basement. Impossible to contact him.

For several hours, the dogs of the dog teams did not mark anything. Using a backhoe loader, the firefighters extract, “in a surgical manner”, insists the operations commander, the still smoking rubble in an attempt to locate the owner of the premises. Unfortunately, it was done around 3 p.m. The criminal identification technicians (TIC) come forward.

Propane and acetylene cylinders exhumed from the rubble

Rémy Dabernat was 76 years old. This former professional welder who loved tinkering was found with his protective mask. During the operations, rescuers exhumed propane and acetylene bottles which were probably the cause of this terrible tragedy. A hypothesis that is all the more plausible as the pavilion is not connected to town gas. However, only the investigation by the gendarmes of the Moissac brigade, who made the first findings alongside Captain Julien Depardieu, second in command of the Castelsarrasin company, will make it possible to say this with certainty.

“He was someone who often tinkered and who mastered his subject. But in fact, we think he was welding when everything exploded,” confides Julien Lacombe, the mayor of Meauzac, who attended all the relief operations to support the Dabernat family. Likewise, sub-prefect Pierre Bressolles made the trip.

“We have set up a psychological unit for his wife which is closely monitored. But she insisted on staying there with their children and she is coping with the shock, greets Julien Lacombe. The town hall is at their side, both psychologically and materially. This family can contact us at any time. »