VIDEO. “Like a bomb”: the laundromat explodes in the city center in La Rochelle, a 63-year-old woman dies of a heart attack

In rue de Cordouan in the center of La Rochelle (Charente-Maritime), local residents are still in shock. At the very end of the afternoon on Monday, November 25, a laundromat located on the ground floor of a three-story building suddenly exploded. A 63-year-old woman, who lived on the third floor of the building, died after suffering a heart attack. The blast caused significant damage on site.

La Rochelle: a 63-year-old woman dies in the explosion of her building in the center of the city pic.twitter.com/BAJ56qlh8w

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“I had just come home from work and I heard a big boom, a big explosion,” says Miguel, a neighbor, to our colleagues at France 3. It's like a bomb has exploded. That's when I came out and saw the flames in front of me. “Everyone was shouting around.” Most residents of the building managed to escape before the fire that followed the explosion spread to the upper floors.

In total, around forty firefighters were mobilized on site. According to the first elements of the investigation, a fire broke out in the laundry, before the flames reached the boiler. A specialist must still visit the site to find out if the foundations of the building are still safe.