The explosion and the fire were so violent during the night from Sunday to Monday that it took firefighters several hours to reach two of the three damaged buildings on rue Arago, in the city center of Saint-Laurent-de -la-Salanque. The explosion killed seven people, including one child under one and one under threeconfirms the public prosecutor, Jean-David Cavaillé, invited this Tuesday morning from France Bleu Roussillon.
The bodies were found in the rubble of the first two buildings. Impossible for the moment to know if they were linked in one way or another, the disposition of the bodies and the state in which they were found do not allow no definite identification yet.
Gendarmerie investigators will not be able to enter the scene before Wednesday, the time to fully stabilize and secure housing. Not sure that the third building will be accessible from Wednesday, however, according to Jean-David Cavaillé. The building is indeed very fragile and threatens to collapse.
One person is still missing. Rescuers hope to be able to resume research this Tuesday morning.
the investigation has only just begun
The experts will have to answer several questions, starting with the course of events. Was it the explosion that caused the fire, or vice versa? And above all, the origins of the drama.
No hypothesis is favored for the time being, even if the firefighters quickly mentioned the presence of gas cylinders on the ground floor of one of the buildings, at a grocery store. There too, impossible for the moment to determine their role in this fire and to whom they belong, advances, cautious Jean-David Cavaillé.
The Perpignan public prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into arson causing death. “All tracks are worked”, says the public prosecutor. The CCTV footage of the town are currently being studied by investigators, he confirms. And one of the cameras was aimed at rue Arago, where the tragedy occurred.
A team from the IRCGN (National Gendarmerie Criminal Research Institute) arrived on site. She goes “accompany a fire expert and investigators in the field“, indicates the public prosecutor. This team will in particular carry out, with the firefighters, building models.