A five-year-old child dies in a fire in Argenteuil, his twin brother’s prognosis is in danger

The fire broke out on Friday morning, while the parents were away taking their third child to the leisure centre. Initial investigations point to an accident.

Published


Update


Reading time: 1 min

Fire truck during an intervention for a fire in Paris, in June 2024. Illustration. (QUENTIN DE GROEVE / HANS LUCAS)

A five-year-old boy died on Friday, August 2 in Argenteuil in the Val d’Oise, after a fire broke out in the apartment he was staying in, Radio France learned from a police source. His twin brother, who was also in the apartment, was taken to hospital, with his life in danger.

According to the firefighters, the two children were taken into care as an absolute emergency. When they arrived, the deceased child had not died in the fire, but he died afterwards, while being taken into care. According to a source close to the case, the two children were in cardio-respiratory arrest when the emergency services arrived. The second child was taken to Garches hospital (Hauts-de-Seine).

According to police sources, the two children were alone in the apartment located on the third floor of the building. The two parents had left to take their third child to the leisure center. An investigation has been opened to try to determine the causes of this fire which broke out around 9:30 a.m. According to the Pontoise prosecutor’s office, the first elements of the investigation allow the intervention of a third party to be excluded and point towards an accidental fire whose cause remains to be established. The prosecutor’s office specifies that the fire “did not take place in an unsanitary apartment and/or located in a building of this type”.

Around sixty firefighters were mobilised to put out the fire, as well as around fifteen machines, according to the firefighters.


source site-33