Meaux-Chauconin: an inmate dies in the fire of his cell, a prison officer hospitalized

The fire broke out around 11 a.m. this Thursday morning in a cell occupied by two men at the Meaux-Chauconin prison center (Seine-et-Marne).

Immediately, supervisors evacuated one of the two occupants of the cell invaded by smoke and flames, the other was initially reported missing.

While staff members began to put out the fire, others evacuated several inmates from nearby cells to escape the smoke that spread through this wing of the prison.

They were placed in a secure place during the rest of the intervention to prevent any attempt to escape in favor of the reigning confusion.

During this time, around forty firefighters arrived on board around ten intervention vehicles.

In the meantime, prison officers had extinguished the fire.

The firefighters then carried out reconnaissance, ventilation and measurement of carbon monoxide in the air.

They thus discovered the lifeless body of an inmate in the cell destroyed by the flames and concentrating the most smoke.

“It is very likely that this man is at the origin of the fire”, confides a source close to the file.

All evacuated inmates returned to their cells after the disaster

Firefighters rescued a prison officer who inhaled a lot of smoke during his intervention to fight the fire.

He was transported to the Meaux hospital center in "relative emergency", indicates the departmental fire and rescue service of Seine-et-Marne.

The emergency services took stock of the health of 24 others, fifteen slightly inconvenienced prison officers whose condition did not require hospitalization and nine prisoners in total, none of whom had to be evacuated to the emergency room.

The latter returned to their cell at the end of the morning except for the prisoner who shared his, destroyed, with the deceased.

He was moved to another room.

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According to our information, the fire, the intervention of prison officers and firefighters did not cause any disturbances within the establishment.

By early afternoon, firefighters were still on the scene.

In October 2016, a fire broke out in the same prison.

Twenty-five detainees and fifteen supervisors were then inconvenienced by the fumes.

A prisoner and an official, slightly intoxicated, had been transported to the hospital in Meaux.

The fire required the intervention of 26 firefighters.

The flames had been quickly extinguished and the cell from which the fire had started completely destroyed.

More info to follow…