Firefighters continue to work in impressive rubble, in Sanary-sur-Mer (Var), after the collapse of a building in the old center which left at least one dead, Tuesday, December 7 in the early morning. They climb piles of rubble that rise over nearly three floors. From the rubble from which they took out a mother and her nine month old baby, safe and sound. Colonel Éric Grohin, from the Var fire brigade, supervises the emergency services. “It was the dogs who scented the baby and we took more than two hours to take him out. And as I speak to you, he is being taken care of by the two Samu teams who are there. well and we are still trying to locate the other victims who are potentially still in this building. The difficulty was first to locate the baby we could hear screaming. And then to go there while protecting the staff because the building is anyway. well collapsed and that we still have risks. ” The mother and her baby lived on the third floor, the father of the family is deceased.
>> Collapse of a building in Sanary-sur-Mer: follow the search for the missing in our direct
The dogs were “essential” in rescue operations, explains Colonel Éric Grohin. “There, we could hear the baby, we had trouble locating it. We have our devices which were also in use, but the dog ‘marked’ right away. it allowed us to make a tunnel to go find this baby. And we managed to pull it out. “ It is now a real race against time which is engaged by the rescuers to try to find the two people still missing, several hours after the explosion. “We have to work in safety for our staff, continues Éric Grohin. It’s a long-term operation because you saw the building … We’ll have to go and look at everything. It is done with meticulousness. “
The explosion took place in the dead of night at 3:50 a.m. The building is located on the Old Port of Sanary-sur-Mer, it overlooks the fishermen’s quay. Cécile was awakened by the explosion. She lives in the building opposite. “We felt the explosion, our building moved, our bed moved. I even thought it was in our building. We said to ourselves: there is a fire, there is something … J woke up my husband, I said: there’s the building that exploded. I couldn’t even get out of my bed. My legs were shaking. And then, at four in the morning, we got out, we were evacuated. That’s when we saw the whole building collapsed. “
On the causes of this tragedy, the neighbors evoke a strong smell of gas just after the explosion. For Daniel Alsters, the mayor of Sanary-sur-Mer, the building, in any case, was not reported as dilapidated or dangerous. “It’s a building that has never posed any problem. In the old center of Sanary, you have lots of buildings from the same period that never posed a problem. This one never posed for us. No particular problem either. So, before saying this or that, there is an investigation, there are experts … and then we will see. “