Deadly fire in the Aisne: the reasons for the tragedy according to the first elements of the investigation

Behind the blackened facade, how were a mother and her seven children trapped by the fire on the night of February 6? “Obviously, it was the head of the family who had told them to take refuge on the top floor, and that is where they were taken out with a large ladder.“, reports Patricia Planson, mayor of Charly-sur-Marne (Aisne). According to the first elements of the investigation, on the ground floor of the house, a clothes dryer in working order would have caught fire.

Intoxicated by the flames

Around one o’clock in the morning, alerted by a burning smell, the father of the family woke up his partner and the children, and took them up to the second floor. He tried to evacuate the dryer but was engulfed in flames. Thick black smoke rose in the cage ofstairs, but the family failed to open the shutters electrical, the current being cut off. Trapped, the mother and the seven children died of poisoning. The house had not been identified as unsanitary, according to the prosecutor. It remains to be determined how the dryer was able to catch fire.