This family was “targeted”. The 41-year-old mother of twins did not survive the arson attack in many ways. A woman died of her injuries on Saturday after being seriously burned the day before along with her five-year-old twin children in the arson of their apartment in Miramas (Bouches-du-Rhône), we learned from the prosecutor from Aix-en-Provence.
According to firefighters, the fire broke out during the night from Thursday to Friday, at 2:20 a.m., in a seven-story building in Miramas, about sixty km northwest of Marseille. Four people from the same family – the father, the mother and their two children -, trapped by the flames, were burned to different degrees.
The mother, aged 41 and whose vital prognosis was in jeopardy, “died last night in hospital”, declared the public prosecutor of Aix-en-Provence, Jean-Luc Blachon. His son’s vital prognosis remains “very serious”, he added, specifying that the condition of his twin sister had “improved”, but that she remained hospitalized, and that the father, burned on the face and hands, according to the firefighters, had been able to leave the hospital.
Investigation opened for murder
An investigation was opened for “murder, attempted murder by an organized gang and arson by an organized gang causing danger to people,” said the prosecutor. This was entrusted to the judicial police.
-According to Jean-Luc Blachon, “the first investigations made it possible to conclude with certainty that the fire was of criminal origin”, and that the burned apartment, located on the ground floor, was “targeted”. However, he did not give any information on the motives which could have pushed the arsonist(s) to target this family. “The investigation is still ongoing,” he insisted, considering however that it was an “absolutely serious crime”.
The eleven other tenants of the building were able to return to their homes, firefighters said this Saturday morning.
