It was around 3 p.m. this Monday, when Didier Savey, volunteer firefighter, saw black smoke escaping from the window of an apartment located in the Orcet district, within the Cols building, in two steps from his house.
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“The flames came out through the windows, licking the roof, disintegrating the shutters and even melting the gutters”
“I immediately raised the alarm. Especially since there was a great risk of the fire spreading. In a few minutes, the flames came out of the windows, licking the roof, disintegrating the shutters and even melting the gutters,” declared the witness who immediately joined the team of the fire and rescue center (CIS) from the Hauteville plateau and led by chief warrant officer Christophe Pélissier, who arrived quickly on the scene.
The fire soldiers took out their lances and evacuated the dogs from the neighboring apartment, the one which was prey to the embers being unoccupied at that time of the day. Under the stunned gaze of the neighborhood residents who had all evacuated the building of 17 housing units, a former care establishment entirely rehabilitated into social housing by Semcoda (Mixed economy construction company of the Ain department) in 2017, emergency services prevented the flames from spreading.
An ongoing investigation
“This fire concerns an apartment located at 4e floor. We carried out a firefighting and clearing mission,” explains Lieutenant Nicolas Vial, head of the on-call group, present on the scene. Men and equipment coming from the emergency centers of Hauteville, Jujurieux, Ambérieu-en-Bugey with its large scale, Montréal-la-Cluse, Culoz and Bellegarde were on the scene, “the Hauteville sector being quite off-center. » The large ladder was deployed with its thermal cameras to ensure that the fire was not smoldering in the attic and part of the roof was stripped to check the framework.
In less than an hour, the incident was contained, and the gendarmes of the autonomous brigade of the plateau, under the orders of Major Lévêque, carried out observations and interviewed witnesses. On site, Semcoda officials rehoused the neighbors, collateral victims of this disaster. An investigation is underway to determine the origin of this fire.
