They had come to spend Christmas with their family in Normandy: two children aged 7 and 11 died early Saturday morning and a young girl was in very serious condition after the fire at their second home in Selles, in Eure.
Informed of the disaster around 3:45 a.m., “The firefighters intervened very quickly” but when they arrive “the fire was already very advanced” and the Normandy farmhouse was engulfed in flames, Isabelle Dorliat-Pouzet, secretary general of the Eure prefecture, told AFP.
Some of the ten occupants of the house, including the 92-year-old great-grandmother, had been able to escape in time but “Three children couldn’t get out on their own” and stayed indoors, she said.
Firefighters then entered the burning building to rescue them.
Unfortunately, a 7 year old girl and an 11 year old boy had already died when they were extracted. A third child, also extricated from the blaze in cardio-respiratory arrest, was able to be revived by the emergency services. Aged 13, she was evacuated “in absolute urgency” by helicopter to Trousseau Hospital in Paris. The other members of the family were hospitalized after inhaling smoke from the fire, said the prefecture.
In total, five adults and five children were in their second home in Selles, near Pont-Audemer.
Unknown causes
There was “four generations of one family” coming from the Paris region, the great-grandmother, the grandparents, their children and grandchildren.
The firefighters were still on site at the end of the morning to drown the blackened rubble of the house, almost completely destroyed by the flames, noted an AFP photographer in the small Norman village, in shock after the tragedy.
An investigation was opened by the public prosecutor of Evreux to determine the causes of the fire, which “remain unknown”. “At this stage, no one has any idea what could have happened”said Isabelle Dorliat-Pouzet.
“The resources of the departmental fire and rescue service (SDIS) were dispatched to the scene in the minutes following the call to 18. More than 80 firefighters, SAMU teams, gendarmes were mobilized on site »underlined the prefecture of Eure in a press release.
“All our thoughts are with this family struck by this terrible tragedy on this Christmas Eve”declared the prefect of Eure, Simon Babre, who salutes “Mobilization and Reactivity” relief.
“It’s dramatic, there are no words”reacted on France Bleu Normandie Gérard Platel, the mayor of Selles, which has less than 500 inhabitants.
