On the night of December 3 to 4, 1999, a memorable tragedy occurred at 145 avenue Eiffel in Dijon. A gas explosion which left 11 dead. The youngest of the victims, two little girls, were 6 and 8 years old, the oldest 71. They also included a group of four friends gathered for a birthday party. That evening around 11:45 p.m. the explosion was so powerful that the small building, literally blown away, collapsed on itself, in a few seconds a mountain of rubble took its place. The search will last all night.
The delicate work of firefighters
The firefighters carefully extract the rubble one after the other. Around 8 a.m. on Sunday the bodies of the two girls were removed from the rubble. There will be 9 other victims including Fanny Forest19 years old. She was in this building for a friends birthday party. Sylvie Forest his mother had hoped for a long time in vain that evening. “We stayed all night with my husband to see the work of the firefighters with the shovel who delicately removed stone by stone. We said to ourselves: it’s not possible if there are people underneath.”.
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Crushed under a mound of rubble
Sylvie remembers that with Serge's brother, the friend who was hosting the birthday party that evening, she decided to ring the cell phones of the missing. “Because we didn't really know if they were there or if they had gone out clubbing. When we heard the phones ringing, the dogs rushed but there was no longer any hope, they finished crushed under a pile of stones” she rewinds, a sob in her voice. The investigation will demonstrate the responsibility of the brittle gray cast iron gas pipes used at the time by GDF.
A long legal battle
Sylvie Forestalso president of the victims' association “145 avenue Eiffel” fought to obtain a ban on this material. “It was on appeal in 2006 and it is the first time that a company like GDF has been found responsible and guilty of manslaughter” she remembers. It's master Arnaud Brultet the lawyer of the association who won the legal fight on behalf of the victims. “We won and when I say 'we' it is because it is a common fight because I would like to salute Mrs. Forest who lost her daughter in this accident but who fought for years to that the gas worker is prohibited from using these brittle pipes”. Seven years after the tragedy, GDF was therefore found guilty of “homicide and unintentional injury” and sentenced to a fine of 200,000 euros.
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