A heroic act
Upstairs was a couple with their little daughter, less than ten years old. “Shortly before we arrived there, the police had already arrived. Stuck upstairs, with no possibility of fleeing, the father had no other solution than to throw his daughter out of the window in the literal sense of the term. The police officer who received the child was able to break his fall but was injured while carrying out his heroic act. The child's mother was able to jump out of the window. She suffered injuries from her fall. The dad, for his part, was not so lucky.”
The fire took place during the night from Sunday to Monday.
This afternoon, the prosecution confirmed what was until now only a suspicion: the fire was indeed criminal. “A priori, it is an arson which targeted the commercial ground floor“, confirmed the Mons prosecutor's office. “Unfortunately, the fire spread to the floor where there was a couple with a child. The mother and child were able to be saved, but not the companion who died in the fire. Work is underway to identify the suspect(s) but no more is known at this time.“
For the firefighters, the criminal origin is beyond doubt: “The fire was so violent that it could not have been a domestic accident. Especially since at the time of the events, the store was closed and unoccupied.”
And Captain Filippi reminds us that everyone is now obliged to equip their homes with smoke detectors. “Likewise, I can only advise all citizens to have an emergency evacuation plan in the event of a fire..”
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