An electrician has been indicted for manslaughter in the investigation into the fire of a house in Selles (Eure) which caused the death of three children at the end of December, the Evreux prosecution announced on Tuesday December 10.
“
The hearings of the owners of the house establish that the seals blew several times in the days preceding the fire and that the electrician intervened the previous Tuesday, December 20.
The pellets blew when they plugged in a deep fryer, a vacuum cleaner…
”, indicated the public prosecutor of Evreux Rémi Coutin during a press conference.
First auditions
On January 5, the 55-year-old electrician living in the area, unknown to the courts, was placed in police custody.
"
During his hearings, he admits having intervened several times in the house
recently," said the magistrate.
The fire, which took place on the night of December 23 to 24, caused the death of three children from the same family, aged 7, 11 and 13.
In their report, the criminal identification technicians estimated that a failure of the electrical panel or its peripherals, which was in the main room, "
was the main cause of the fire
", according to the prosecutor, specifying that the detector smoke hadn't worked.
The “collapsed” electrician
According to autopsies, the two children found dead in an upstairs bedroom “
died from inhalation of toxic fumes before being engulfed in flames.
These same fumes led to the loss of consciousness of the third victim as well as to his subsequent death
,” said the prosecutor.
According to a fire expert, "
only an electric arc from the switchboard could have caused the melting of the cables which he observed
", and this electric arc "
could have projected sparks on the sofa located just below and thus caused the outbreak of fire
”.
The electrician in question, who "
appears collapsed
" by the tragedy, was indicted on January 6 for manslaughter, involuntary injuries resulting in an ITT of less than or equal to three months and involuntary destruction of the property of others by fire .
Placed under judicial control, he incurs a sentence of three years' imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 euros.
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The prosecution and the examining magistrate “
considered that there were serious and consistent indications allowing this man to be put on trial, but the file will be very complex
”, declared Mr. Coutin.
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