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Paris: victims remember the Saint-Jacques explosion a year ago
Paris: victims remember the Saint-Jacques explosion a year ago
(France 2)
On June 21, 2023, a building on rue Saint-Jacques (Paris) collapsed, following a violent explosion caused by a gas leak. Three people had lost their lives. Testimonies, a year later, from victims.
Like a still open wound, the ruins of the building are still exposed, and the beams blackened. These are the scars of the explosion which almost cost Mickael Gac his life. On June 21, 2023, he left work by bike at 4:55 p.m. “I am leaving Catholic education, I am on my bike (…) and I almost arrive at the foot of the building. I take a moment on my bike, and then boom, explosion. I am thrown back between 5 and 10 meters “, he says. The building was blown up and devoured by flames. It housed a fashion school. The students had left, but three women died, including a teacher at the school.
Mickaël Gac was burned on part of his body, up to third degree on his hands. The explosion was such that most of the windows of neighboring buildings were pulverized. Patrick Muller lived opposite. His apartment, like all those in his building, is still under construction. For a year, the victims of rue Saint-Jacques have been living with the weight of the trauma. The cause of the gas explosion is still under investigation. “We want to know the truth, so that above all this does not happen again,” explains Alain Polonsky, president of the Val-de-Grâce disaster victims collective.
