A 10-year-old child indicted for the deadly Aubervilliers fire

A 10-year-old child indicted for the deadly Aubervilliers fire
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AFP
/ Thomas SAMSON

He was playing with a lighter and a cloth: a 10-year-old child was indicted on suspicion of having set fire to a public housing tower that caused the death of a 33-year-old mother and his three children Thursday in Aubervilliers.

This child was indicted by an examining magistrate Bobigny who had opened a judicial investigation for arson causing death, a crime punishable by life imprisonment, said Monday a judicial source to AFP

The child can not however be tried, his age making it criminally irresponsible. The investigating judge decided to impose a "measure of remoteness" of this town of Seine-Saint-Denis, according to this same source.

"He played with a lighter and set a torch on fire He failed to extinguish the fire that spread to the apartment and then to the neighboring apartments, "said the judicial source.

The fire started on Thursday around 17H00, and had spread to the last five floors of this tower which has eighteen. The inanimate bodies of the victims, a pregnant 33-year-old mother and her 18-month-old, 4-year-old and 6-year-old children, were discovered in the early evening in a 17th-floor dwelling.

Nine people, six residents and three firefighters, were also transported to the hospital, slightly injured. "This drama reminds us that in a city as dense as Aubervilliers, take care of each and everyone is what allows the security of all," responded Monday night the town hall which stressed "the momentum of solidarity" caused by this fire.

Secretary of State for Territorial Cohesion Julien Denormandie, who visited the scene on Friday, expressed his "gratitude to the young people of the neighborhood who saved lives" climbing up the floors to rescue the inhabitants before the arrival of the firemen.

The fire had required the intervention of about thirty vehicles and a hundred firemen, whose work had been complicated by the temperatures scribes who reigned in Ile-de-France.

"I thought I was going to burn"

Between 250 and 350 people had been evacuated from this building of 108 dwellings belonging to the Public Office HLM d ' Aubervilliers. Thirty of them had spent the night in a gymnasium made available by the town hall.

Friday morning, shocked residents, gathered at the foot of the building, had paid tribute to the young people of the city, came to help the inhabitants trapped at the top of the tower

"The real heroes are the young ones, if they had not intervened, the balance would have been even heavier." A little screaming at the window of the 16th, he was going jump, "badured Foudil Ben Cherif, a host.

On Thursday afternoon, with Samir, 16, and Stéphane, 21, he had climbed 16 of the 18 floors of this building to "knock on the doors and get people out": "It was a work of art. 'team, with the police and firefighters', had reported this thirties.

"We were posed downstairs, as usual, and we saw the child at the window. he was laughing, "Stéphane told AFP a few hours after the fire. "We went up with the elevator, it was all dark, 70 degrees, I thought I was going to burn, I took down the kid and a handicapped woman from the 15th, on foot." And to sigh: "We did not know that there were still people in the 17th …"

The deceased mother, named Fatoumata according to witnesses, had worked as a cashier at the nearby supermarket. "She stopped working after having her first daughter, to take care of children, told AFP Mariam Dembélé, a neighbor who was also his colleague.

30/07/2018 22:42:22 –
Bobigny (AFP) –
© 2018 AFP