disasters keep coming for the future Biganos gendarmerie

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It seems that everything is working hard to ensure that the future Biganos gendarmerie, under construction since 2022, does not emerge from the ground. The future residence, which was to house the gendarmes by 2025, was almost completely destroyed by a fire that occurred this Wednesday, November 13, 2024, around 5:30 a.m.

A massive blow for the mayor, while the construction site had resumed shortly ago after a long shutdown linked to successive bankruptcy filings.

It was due to be delivered in 2025

“I call it the cursed construction site”says Bruno Lafon, the mayor of Biganos. Gone in smoke, his hopes of delivering in 2025 the residence that he had promised to the gendarmes. They are currently housed in various accommodations in Biganos and its surroundings and hoped to be regrouped near the gendarmerie, located on avenue de la Côte d'Argent.

“Unfortunately, they will have to wait again,” whispers the mayor, disappointed. At the scene of the fire, he confirmed that two of the buildings under construction are “completely destroyed” and the last is partially, but remains “irrecoverable”.

The hassle of the construction site

The project began in 2022, after Covid. But the pandemic had weighed heavily on the finances of construction companies and among those in charge of the construction site of the future gendarmerie, “four filed for bankruptcy one after the other”explains the mayor. Consequence: the construction site was at a standstill for months.

“We had lots of difficulty finding a company who would agree to take it back, explains the first councilor, because of the ten-year guarantee” (a guarantee which protects the owner of a property for ten years and subjects builders to certain obligations).

In 2023, the construction site finally resumes with a view to being delivered in July 2025. “Everything was going well, the exterior parts and the facades were almost finished,” reports Bruno Lafon. The same goes for the other construction sites in the ZAC in which the residence was installed. Until Wednesday, November 13, when the fire broke out before dawn.

A suspicious fire?

For now, the causes of the fire remain unclear. But the public prosecutor's office, present on the scene according to the first councilor, opened an investigation to determine how it started.

So is the fire considered suspicious? To this question, Bruno Lafon hits the nail on the head. “I can’t tell you,” he replies. We don't do an investigation like that for all fires but we don't know what could have happened, the causes could be multiple. »

The Caisse des Dépôts et des Consignations, owner of the residence, should be compensated by insurance after the investigation by experts sent to clarify the causes of the fire.

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