what we know about the death of a 58-year-old woman who fell into a hole

A 58-year-old woman died this Sunday, October 20 in connection with bad weather in Ardèche. She fell into a hole before being swept away by the waters.

While the center-east of France was hit by violent rains and floods for several days, a woman died on Sunday October 20 in Ardèche linked to the floods. According to the prefecture, she fell into a hole.

• Fallen then carried away by the waters

According to the prefect of Ardèche Sophie Elizéon, a 58-year-old woman “approached” a “hole” on Sunday in the town of Burzet, in Ardèche. This cavity “corresponded directly with the La Bourges river”, according to the prefecture. By falling, the woman is then “carried away” by the watercourse over a distance of 400 meters.

The Ardèche departmental fire and rescue service intervened quickly on site, with the help of a civil security helicopter. But the victim was declared dead on Sunday “early afternoon”.

• A hole “created following bad weather”

According to the prefecture, the hole into which the woman fell was “created following the latest bad weather” which hit the region last week, on the Ray Pic road.

The mayor of Burzet Jean-Pierre Reymond explained on BFMTV on Sunday evening that the hole had, according to him, probably formed due to bad weather that occurred a few days earlier in his town.

“As a result of this flooding on Thursday, there were a lot of rocks that were rolled down by the river,” he said.

“And these rocks hit the retaining wall of the main road. By hitting, it caused a vault of an old cellar to collapse which was under the road and which had not been filled in, it seems, what caused this hole,” he says.

• A secure road “from Friday”

We still don’t know why the fifty-year-old approached the hole. The mayor of Burzet assures that “from Friday, the day it collapsed, we secured the road”. “Apparently, this lady went to the middle to see what was going on,” he said.

“People are not at all careful, they come for the show. There are some who go through the barriers to take photos at the edge of the hole, even though we know that it is very dangerous,” laments he on RMC-BFMTV this Monday morning, without us knowing if the fifty-year-old was one of them.

The elected official reminds us that it is strongly recommended “not to approach the edge of the river because there could be a landslide”.

“The risk of landslides and the still very high level of watercourses still constitute real dangers and call for caution from everyone,” for her part underlined the prefect of Ardèche.