Neighbors first smelled the flames around 2 p.m. on Saturday afternoon. These neighbors, by alerting the firefighters, discover that the fire is actually consuming a farm building that belongs to them. They have been renting it for several years to a 59-year-old man who lives alone. When they arrived on site, the owners could not do anything: the fire had already spread to the whole house.
Twenty-five Tarn firefighters are mobilized. They fought against the flames for several hours using 3 fire hoses. Eight gendarmes from the Gaillac brigade assist them on the spot. They discover the charred body of the tenant of the house.
The latter lived alone, in this very isolated area of Gaillac and bordering Castelnau-de-Montmirail. Sick, he needed to be regularly placed on oxygen. His nurse had even intervened at his homebarely an hour before the emergency services started.
The origin of the fire is not known but the prosecution requested an autopsy to shed light on this tragedy.