Death in the rubble, city property… What do we know about the fire in a building squatted by 80 people?

Death in the rubble, city property… What do we know about the fire in a building squatted by 80 people?
Death in the rubble, city property… What do we know about the fire in a building squatted by 80 people?

During the night from Monday to Tuesday, a little before 1 a.m., a fire broke out in the Denuzière building, located in Caluire-et-Cuire, near , the Rhône prefecture said in a press release. Two people were seriously injured and transported in absolute emergency. Two others were hospitalized in relative emergency. “In the middle of the day, a deceased person was found in the rubble,” the city of Lyon said in a press release.

In total, 139 firefighters and two Samu teams were mobilized. They managed to bring the fire under control around 3:30 a.m.

47 people taken to a reception center

State services specified that 47 people had been taken care of and examined by emergency services during the night. They were “transported to a Red Cross reception center, by a requisitioned TCL bus”.

Search operations were also undertaken, with three people reported missing. “The remaining occupants were taken care of in a gymnasium opened by the town hall of Caluire-et-Cuire,” said Philippe Cochet, president of the La métro positive group and mayor of this town.

A building illegally occupied for a year

The building, owned by the city of Lyon, was a former boarding school that had been abandoned and walled up for several years. It was reinvested by intersquat 69 last year after the evacuation of the “largest squat in the city at the time”, located in the 7th arrondissement.

Following this occupation, the mayor of Caluire-et-Cuire issued a residential ban order on November 9, 2023, “denouncing the imminent risks”. He “explicitly warned against the risks of fire linked to electrical connections”, recalls the latter in the press release. This order was annulled by the administrative court of Lyon. The municipality then contacted the metropolis of Lyon to issue a danger order, without success.

The opposition points to “the responsibility” of the city

“It was, unfortunately, predictable given the state of the building,” reacted in turn, Pierre Oliver, president of the right, center and independent group of the city of Lyon. “The mayor of Lyon had chosen not to request the evacuation of this squat and no danger order was issued,” he asserts, pointing out the “criminal responsibility” of the elected official.

“Many times in municipal council, we have denounced the hypocrisy of this so-called policy of practiced hospitality,” he said. Before launching: “How many other squats are located in buildings belonging to the city or on its territory, to public actors such as social landlords? Are other tragedies needed to emerge from this blindness? »

Our file on fires

In response, the mayor simply confirmed that this building belonged to the city and that it had actually been occupied “since October 2023 by around 80 people, the majority of whom came from the evacuation of the “Pyramid squat”. » “The city of Lyon would like to express its solidarity with the victims and their loved ones as well as the groups who support them,” he wrote in the press release, thanking “all the rescue and security services which have been mobilized since this night on site. »

An investigation should be opened to determine the exact circumstances of the incident.

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