The parents of Richelle Abalos were among the ten victims of the fire that set a building on rue Erlanger in Paris on February 5, 2019. While the trial of the alleged arsonist opens this Monday before the Court of foundations of Paris, she entrusts her expectations to BFMTV.
This Monday – four years, almost to the day after the tragedy – the trial around the fire in rue Erlanger opens before the Paris Assize Court. On February 5, 2019, fire ravaged the building at 17 bis of this artery in the 16th arrondissement. A former tenant of the building appears in court who suspects this woman with a heavy psychiatric history of having caused the fire after an altercation with a neighbor, resulting in the death of ten people in the blaze.
Francisco and Cresencia Abalos, a Filipino couple, are among the victims. Their daughter, Richelle, who is among the 91 civil parties, returned to the event with BFMTV as a prelude to this hearing. She hopes that this will raise painful question marks.
“I couldn’t speak anymore”
His parents, Francisco and Cresencia, died of asphyxiation in the hallway serving the common areas of the 7th floor. If the fire was lit in the middle of the night, it was in the early morning that Richelle discovered the horror.
“It was terrible. Arriving there, there were fire trucks everywhere”, she remembers in English in front of the cameras of BFMTV, developing: “The firefighters kept coming in and out. I saw their faces and I was like, ‘Where’s my mom? Where’s my dad?’ I couldn’t speak anymore.”
She now expects the hearing to allow her to see more clearly about the circumstances that made this tragedy possible, and about the profile of the accused: “Why did she live there among normal people then that she had mental problems?
The expert, however, considered that, despite these mental problems, the ex-tenant and alleged arsonist was criminally responsible. “All of this takes us back four years and we need to put an end to our pain and all these questions”, concludes Richelle Abalos. The trial is expected to last three weeks.
