TESTIMONY. “They all thought I was dead.” Habib, miraculously saved from the collapse of buildings on rue d’Aubagne, still lives in the neighborhood

On November 5, 2018, the collapse of three buildings on rue d’Aubagne in Marseille left eight people dead and residents buried under the rubble. While the trial which opens this November 7, six years later, is preparing to establish responsibilities. France 3 Provence-Alpes found Habib, miraculously, he explains why that morning… he went out.

Eight dead. Terrible results of poor housing, of neglect, and of the fate that set its sights here, that day. On November 5, 2018 at 9:03 a.m., the collapse of the building located at 65 rue d’Aubagne swallowed eight of its residents. Eight lives destroyed in a few seconds, and in mirror a few miraculous ones that fate spared.

Why them? The question has not stopped haunting Sophie, ex-tenant of the 5th. The student left the night before to take refuge with her parents to escape the “walls that moved“.

I could hardly open my door, I was afraid of finding myself trapped

Sophie Dorbeaux, survivor of the collapse of the buildings on rue d’Aubagne

Interview with AFP

On the 4th floor, Pierre and Alexia preferred to sleep at a friend’s house across the street, saved by their shower which had started to leak. On the same floor, Abdelghani woke up to cracks on the walls of his bedroom and left the building at 8:51 a.m. to show the photos to his trustee. As for Rachid, he had the good idea to go down his two floors for a few minutes to buy cigarettes, smoking saved him.

Right in the center of rue d’Aubagne, the window doesn’t look like much. Plastic bags placed on a simple shelf, a few gas bottles. Two posters invite you to weekend events in memory of the victims of the collapses. For a bit, we would miss the “Laundromat” sign made with a light blue graphic and which blends in with the surrounding tags. That’s where we find Habib, he regularly helps out.

“You are from the Town Hall ” The man in front of the window does not hold the authorities in his heart. The poor housing should have cost him his life. Everyone knows it in the neighborhood: Habib is one of the few miraculous victims of the collapses. Irony of the history, he now works on the Place du 5 November, renamed in memory of the catastrophe from which he escaped.

In the fall of 2018, Habib lived with Rachid Rahmounitenant on the second floor of 65 rue d’Aubagne. By an extraordinary stroke of luck, he did not sleep in his room the night before the tragedy. “I went to my cousin’s house on the other side of town“.

After dropping his daughter off at school, on the 9:30 a.m. bus that takes him back to Noailles, he finds the atmosphere “not normal“. “The passengers were fidgeting around their phones, I said to myself: it’s for OM“. Football results? So Habib also turns on his smartphone. “And there jI find tons of missed messages. Everyone wanted to know if I was still alive” he remembers.

Everyone thought I was dead

Habib, housed in the building at 65 rue d’Aubagne in 2018

France 3 Provence-Alpes

Habib remembers some flashes of his arrival on the street that morning. The downpour falling hard. “Firefighters everywhere“. And Rachid, “closed face“. “Rachid immediately told me that we were both miracles“. A little before 9 a.m., his host had gone down to have a coffee at the bar below, and he stayed there longer than expected to protect himself from the rain. That’s when the building collapsed. collapsed.

There is a good God, it was not our day

Habib, survivor of the collapse on rue d’Aubagne

France 3 Provence-Alpes

Also hosted, Tahar Hedfi, and Sheriff Zemar, 58 and 36 years old, They spent the night at Rachid’s house. Their last night.

In the winter of 2018, Habib left France for Algeria. ” 5 or 6 months, to clear the air“. Before returning to the neighborhood with friends: “cThis street is a bit like my second family“. But Habib no longer passes by the location of the buildings, the median called “the hollow tooth”. However, he is only a few dozen meters up the street. But the emotional burden remains too heavy. “I can’t anymore. The “hollow tooth”, I go around it from behind“.

I go around from behind, it’s too hard

Habib, survivor of the collapse of rue d’Aubagne

Habib stayed in the neighborhood, hoping that the drama was not in vain, in this area of Noailles, where 48% of buildings are classified “indecent or degraded”. I thought there would be an acceleration of the work, but for six years, they have been doing it slowly.” The observation made by the survivor is bitter.

In his loose white tracksuit, Habib is almost cynical as he gestures to the renovations underway on the sidewalk opposite. “Look, the workers are here right now. They come back every year for a week as the anniversary of the tragedy approaches. To show that they are taking action. Then nothing for a year. It’s desperate”.

In his laundromat, he now awaits trial. And hopes for convictions. Starting with the Town Hall, which he judges “responsible still today for not imposing the work“.