Yesterday, at the end of the afternoon, thick black smoke rose into the sky over the city center of Tarbes. A fire destroyed the roof of a detached house located on rue André Fourcade, near the Louis-Aragon media library.
4:01 p.m., the alert is given. When they arrived, the firefighters noticed that the roof, with a surface area of almost 100m2, was already completely engulfed in flames. In total, around twenty firefighters from the Tarbes rescue center and the CIS (Fire and Rescue Center) Rives de l'Adour were mobilized on site, as well as six rescue machines and an aerial ladder. Thanks to a rapid and coordinated reaction, they were able to control the spread of the flames. Three hoses were used to limit the damage and, after several hours of effort, the fire was extinguished at 6:55 p.m. No casualties were reported and the fire caused no injuries, either in the damaged house or in neighboring houses, which were evacuated during the intervention.
A delicate intervention
The teams encountered some difficulties, in particular due to the wooden structure of the house, which facilitated the spread of the fire. According to the firefighters, the situation became complicated when the “header”, part of the framework which holds the chimney flues, burned, weakening the whole thing. The roof, which was very unstable, made it impossible to carry out the covering. Furthermore, the electricity was cut off by ENEDIS to prevent any additional risk.
An accidental fire
According to the first information provided by the firefighters and the owner's statements, the origin of the fire seems to have already been established: “It would be a failure of the hot water tank”, specifies the police station. Tarbes, in charge of the investigation. The most probable hypothesis, which would confirm the accidental origin of the fire. As for the owner of the house, he was taken care of by the town hall services and temporarily rehoused.
