Seven children and their mother died in the fire of their house in Charly-sur-Marne in the Aisne on the night of Sunday to Monday February 6. The father of this blended family was seriously injured. His days are not in danger. A dryer would have caught fire, according to the prosecutor who opened an investigation. 80 firefighters were mobilized throughout the night. In this village of 2,600 inhabitants, the shock is immense. franceinfo was able to collect testimonials from residents.
Elodie looks drawn, she hasn’t slept all night. She lives across from the burned house. Around 12:30 a.m., she was woken up by screams in her street and left her home. “I saw a lot of people breaking the windows and the door of this house, to try to get the people who were still inside out. It was big flames coming out of the front door and going up upstairs”says the neighbor.
And then Elodie witnessed this heartbreaking scene: the father, in the street, trying to help his family. “He was screaming that there were his children inside. He tried to go back into the house, but a gentleman who was there, probably a firefighter in civilian clothes, stopped him before the firefighters arrived. It’s been long, it’s been hard. Seeing things like that is traumatic.” Elodie has planned to go to the psychological cell which was set up on Monday at the Charly-sur-Marne town hall.
“It is necessary to talk about it”
In this small village, everyone knows each other. The seven children who died in the fire were attending school or college in the town. Between noon and two, the parents of students, who came to pick up their children at primary school for lunch, testify, in shock. Gaëlle’s daughter is in the same class as one of the victims. Difficult for this mother to announce the sad news to her child. “She’s upset, explains the very moved mother. Between the tears, the apprehension and the fear above all. His daughter keeps telling him that“be careful”And “that in the evening, everything must be turned off”. “She is afraid, but she has to talk about it and externalize it”.
Psychologists toured the establishments – kindergarten, elementary and middle school – in the town in the morning. Melanie’s two daughters were in the same class as two of the victims. “They had everything in place when we arrived at school this morning.” His daughter Lana is in CE2. “When I picked her up she was in tears. I told her to talk about it and not keep it to herself.” The little girl has planned to see the psychologist this Monday.