2023-10-22 12:40:00
Around 1:30 p.m. this Sunday, a violent fire broke out in an apartment building located at the corner of rue de la Vacherie and rue Solvay in Auvelais. The building has 9 apartments and complies with safety standards, including fire doors. The fire broke out on the ground floor in an apartment occupied by a sixty-year-old woman with fairly reduced mobility. Very quickly, the flames and very acrid smoke invaded the halls of the building and spread to the apartments on the first floor. The firefighters from the Val de Sambre area, whose station is close, arrived very quickly on my site, under the orders of Captain Yves Braet, with two ladder trucks, two pumpers, a tanker and an ambulance as well as the SMUR of Auvelais. As the ladder was regarding to be positioned to rescue the residents trapped in the building, a woman in her thirties jumped from the first floor and crashed to the ground. Very seriously injured, she was conditioned for a long time before being taken to a hospital in Charleroi. During this time, the fire crews doused the building copiously, with plumes of smoke escaping through the windows and the roof, also spreading to the car of one of the tenants parked in front of the building. After an hour of effort, the firefighters managed to enter the apartments. Unfortunately, they noted the death of the sixty-year-old, who was unable to flee her home. A resident of the building said, in shock: “When I arrived home, I smelled a pungent smell and when I opened the door,… thick smoke came out. I banged on the doors of the other apartments to warn the residents… I also opened the door of the ground floor apartment but there were so many flames that I had to turn back and got nothing. might have done for the victim.”
Another tenant explained that he had also fled the building through a window: “As soon as I saw the smoke invade the landing, I sealed myself in my house, I opened the window on the first floor and, as best I might, I was left, letting myself be guided by the window sills to the neighbor’s shutter, which gave way under my weight. But my fall was not too severe given the low height.”
Seven people to be rehoused
Called to the scene of the tragedy, the mayor of Sambreville, Jean-Charles Luperto, and alderman Vincenzo Maniscalco went to the bedside of the victims and offered aid to the people, 7 in total, who found themselves without housing. Some will be accommodated with their family, others will be taken care of by the Municipality’s social services. The Ores services went to the site to neutralize the arrival of electrical current while the road and the neighborhood were cordoned off by police officers from the Samsom and Jemeppe areas who came in large numbers. The PJ lab went to the site in the followingnoon to investigate the circumstances of the fire. The conclusions of this investigation confirm an accidental origin, according to the Namur public prosecutor’s office. SG
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#person #dies #fire #Auvelais
