It is a spectacle of desolation that the Priory of Amay offered, this Monday, in the center of Amay the day following the fire. Only the load-bearing walls remain. Hindered by barriers and notices prohibiting access, the two entrances (place Joseph Ramoux and rue des Larrons) were to deter any attempt at intrusion for an obvious question of security and investigation duties that were going to take place in the followingnoon. “They were entrusted to an independent fire expert required by the king’s prosecutor and to the technical and scientific police laboratory of the federal judicial police, specifies Commissioner Pierre Minette at the Meuse-Hesbaye police zone. The objective is to locate the start(s) of the fire to determine the origin of the disaster and to identify usable traces in order to possibly identify the perpetrator(s). We often talk regarding squats, but not in the sense of seeing homeless people living there. The place is more frequented by young people, and our services intervene there on an ad hoc basis with identifications.
“That doesn’t mean criminal!”
The investigation made it possible to locate two hearths. “The fire is of voluntary origin. This does not mean that it is criminal, but that it was not caused by a short circuit for example, insists Catherine Collignon, duty magistrate at the Liège public prosecutor’s office. Now, as to whether we intentionally wanted to destroy the building or whether the fire started unintentionally?”
This corroborates the suspicions of the Horizon Group, owner of the site with a view to developing a real estate project there. “I went with an expert to check the stability on Monday and we saw recent cans, says Julien Dutrieux, property development manager. We are going to file a complaint once morest X. Some accuse us of not closing the site enough. But we have been taking security measures for years! We even welded the barriers on the rue des Larrons side because we were breaking the padlocks there. Whatever we do, some manage to access it. There are plenty of adjoining properties and it seems that they even pass through the roof of the Zeeman. Other than putting up a 24-hour vigil, it’s impossible to keep the Priory safe. We had just acquired surveillance cameras and we are going to place them.”
Still, Sunday’s events demonstrated the need to facilitate access to emergency services. “We are still in discussion with the owners of useful plots to widen the bottom of rue des Larrons.”
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