The toll is heavy: three people died in the fire which ravaged a house in Wingles, north of Lens (Pas-de-Calais) at the end of the night. A previous report reported two deaths, but emergency services discovered a third victim.
The mayor of the town indicated that it was a 37-year-old mother and her two daughters aged 9 and 16. Two other children, boys aged 11 and 12, were rescued by a neighbor, said the mayor of the town. The fire – the cause of which is unknown – was brought under control around 8 a.m.
An investigation was opened on the grounds of “destruction by fire leading to death”, and entrusted to the interdepartmental service of the Pas-de-Calais judicial police (SIPJ), indicated the public prosecutor of Béthune Etienne Thieffry, specifying that the prosecution had gone to the site for the first findings.
