"
I thought it was going to be my turn
."
At the trial of the fire in rue Erlanger, in Paris, several victims gave the moving story of their wait in the burning building, sometimes clinging to the facade, until the arrival of the firefighters.
On the night of February 4 to 5, 2019, the flames had ravaged 17 bis of this street in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, trapping the inhabitants of the upper floors of this old and difficult-to-access building.
“I am flabbergasted”
Ten people lost their lives, while the emergency services "
saved 64 people from certain death
" in perilous conditions, the firefighter who ordered the rescue operations testified on Friday.
The Paris Assize Court has been trying for a week Essia Boularès, a 44-year-old woman with psychiatric disorders, who admitted to having set fire to the 2nd floor around 12:30 a.m., after a dispute with a neighbor.
That night, Nadjib A. was awakened by a fire alarm.
This 49-year-old man, living on the 6th floor with his wife Radia B., explains that he opened the door to see what was going on.
“
I am flabbergasted, I see the fire in the whole stairwell in front of me.
I remain unmoved, we are aware that there is no other way out
”.
Read alsoFire in Paris: who are the victims of rue Erlanger?
“
We sat on the balcony.
Suddenly we see one of the neighbors across the street fall
” - the young Adel, 16, cornered by the heat, and whose mother, Revena, also died in the fire.
Radia “
said it was over, that we were going to die.
I refused to hear it
, ”revisited Nadjib at the bar.
His wife offers to weave a rope with sheets.
He finds the idea "
not at all reasonable
" but, unaware that the firefighters are present, on the other side of the building, he finds "
no argument
" to oppose it.
He hands her the duvet cover, turns to look for his passport, which he can't find.
"
I turn around and she was no longer there
," he breathes.
Radia, his "
sun
", did not survive the fall.
Nadjib then remains prostrate in his apartment.
"
And the firefighter arrived, after I don't know how long
."
“Black smoke, very acrid”
A neighbor in the same wing of the building, Mathieu T., then 22 years old, saw everything from the Adel and Radia falls.
“
I hear a lot of screams.
Cries of people who are suffering
”.
“
I thought it was going to be my turn
,” he says.
He estimates that he remained gripped for fifteen minutes on the outside of his small balcony, in his underwear, before being rescued.
“
I regretted not having my mobile phone to call
” my loved ones, explains, moved, the young man, red beard and khaki jacket, always beset by nightmares.
A resident of the 7th floor for 18 years, Julie F., a 55-year-old Franco-American, replays at the bar the cries that woke her up: “
Help, help!
".
His voice freezes the courtroom, where many civil parties attend the trial.
“
I open the window and I see a huge column of smoke blocking the view
”.
While a "
black, very acrid smoke
" begins to invade her "
home
", this little blond woman, an English teacher, goes out on the ledge "
no wider than that
" which surrounds the building, encouraged by three young neighbors.
Read alsoFires: the “reading” of fire at the heart of investigations to identify criminals
A few minutes later, “
I see flames coming out of the window through which I had just left the apartment
”.
If she hadn't listened to her neighbours, “
I would have stayed in the apartment, burnt out
”.
It will hold "
about an hour
" above the vacuum, before being evacuated.
During this time, she calls her father, in the United States, who "
very calmly
", asks her to describe what she sees.
“
This conversation protected me, because I believe that (otherwise) I fell
”.
It was also his call, to a firefighter from the 18th, for more than 2 hours, which helped Solène B. to hang on, as she began
to "leave
", "
intoxicated
" by the fumes.
Caulked in her bathroom on the 7th floor, the young architect - and her cat Noisette - will not be rescued until 3:40 a.m., when the firefighters thought the "
rescue phase
" of the victims was over.
