(St. Helier) At least five people were killed in the explosion and collapse of a residential building on the island of Jersey, police said on Sunday, adding that four other victims were still likely under the rubble after two days of research.
The number of people killed in the explosion “is now at five”, local police chief Robin Smith said on Sunday afternoon. “There are still a number of residents, we estimate four, who are missing.”
A gas leak is the presumed cause of this tragedy which occurred on Saturday around 4 a.m. (local and GMT) in the capital of the island, the port of Saint-Helier in the south of the island. CCTV footage showed a fireball engulfing the three-storey beachfront building, followed by thick smoke.
Earlier on Sunday, Mr Smith said rescuers no longer expected to find any survivors under the rubble of the three-storey building.
The toll was then at least three dead, but “we expect to find more” victims, he warned, referring to “a dozen” missing.
PHOTO SEBASTIEN SALOM-GOMIS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
A gas leak is the presumed cause of this tragedy which occurred on Saturday around 4 a.m. (local and GMT) in the capital of the island, the port of Saint-Helier in the south of the island.
“It is with sadness that I confirm that our search and rescue operations are now recovery operations” of the bodies of victims, he said. Clearing operations “are not going to take days, they are going to take weeks. »
gas smell
The questions are multiplying on Sunday, especially since residents had called the firefighters Friday evening, a few hours before the explosion, to complain of a smell of gas, the “probable” cause of the explosion according to Mr. Smith.
“Something clearly went wrong as a building exploded and collapsed,” local fire chief Paul Brown said when asked by a reporter if residents could trust their emergency services. ’emergency.
He added that firefighters will “cooperate fully” with “honesty and transparency” to understand “what happened and why it happened”. Its priority is first to continue research to ensure the “dignity” of families.
Jersey gas supplier Island Energy also said it was working with the emergency services to figure out what happened.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE GOVERNMENT OF JERSEY, VIA AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
“It is with sadness that I confirm that our search and rescue operations are now recovery operations” of the bodies of victims, explained the local police chief.
Two people were hospitalized on Saturday after the explosion, which shocked the small community of Jersey, a Channel Island in the English Channel.
A neighbour, Anthony Abbott, told the BBC his flat windows were blown inwards by the blast. “Everything outside was on fire,” he said, saying he was “lucky.”
Jersey’s head of government, Kristina Moore, said she too was woken up by the explosion, which was heard across the island.
“This is unthinkable news, we are all absolutely devastated and really worried for people [encore manquants] and for those whose lives were lost,” she said Sunday.
This is the second drama this week on the island whose economy is based on the banking sector, tourism and fishing.
The Jersey Coastguard ended a two-day search at sea on Friday to find three sailors missing when their boat sank on Thursday morning after colliding with a ferry.
The boat, The Foam IIsank some 40 meters deep, too deep for divers to go there without specific equipment.