Le Figaro Nice
More than eight years after the drowning deaths of three residents of an nursing home in Biot (Alpes-Maritimes) on the night of the terrible floods of October 3, 2015, justice rendered its decisions on Monday concerning several officials who could have avoided a such drama.
The former mayor of the town, Guilaine Debras, was given a one-year suspended prison sentence, found guilty of “manslaughter”.
Against her, the Grasse court requested an 18-month suspended sentence.
Only the former elected official was convicted in this widely followed trial on the Côte d'Azur.
The three other defendants were acquitted.
The responsibilities of Yann Pastierik, in charge of the municipality's natural risks, were not admitted, as were those of the young director at the time, Anaïs Gledel.
However, the prosecution had requested suspended prison sentences of one year against them.
In this case, the Orpea group, which had bought this establishment, “Le Clos Saint-Grégoire”, was also acquitted while a fine of 50,000 euros was demanded for “endangering the lives of others”.
During the four days of hearing in January, this trial brought back painful memories and a few tears.
In the west of the department, torrential rains devastated several Riviera towns, numerous houses, and cost the lives of 20 people.
Between 8:51 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.,
“the phenomenon reached a paroxysm of violence on the short coastal strip stretching from Mandelieu-la-Napoule to Biot
,” the president recalled during the hearing.
Compromised general alert
Among these deaths, those of Marguerite Armigliato (94 years old), Jacqueline Delhommeau (91 years old) and Josiane Chaix (82 years old), residents of this retirement home.
They found themselves trapped on the ground floor of the building and a wave of water and mud took their lives in appalling conditions.
The families formed as civil parties criticized the management and prevention of this meteorological episode.
Météo France had indeed issued an orange alert in the middle of the day but the commune of Biot had not applied its municipal protection plan (PCS).
This would have made it possible, according to a procedure, to shelter these residents on the first floor.
The councilor defended himself at the bar by explaining that this PCS was obsolete and inapplicable since his election in 2014, and that she intended to prepare a new, more effective one.
At the material time, this was not yet the case.
His arguments did not convince the court.
“This serious error has obviously compromised the general alert and a fortiori that of the establishment
,” explained the president.
“Let it be said that we have to cut off a head and that it be that of the mayor, okay
,” whispered Guilaine Debras in the Salle des Pas Perdus.
This decision does not surprise me even if I never felt guilty
,” she added.
The evening of the tragedy, she still swears to have
“done everything I could with my little means and above all, those that I did not have”
.
"Shared feeling"
For Me Philippe Soussi, counsel for a family, this complex file reveals
“a shared feeling”
.
“The conviction of the mayor of Biot is important and will be a landmark in the history of this type of disaster
,” he still welcomed.
But he
“does not agree”
with the acquittal of the Orpea group and hopes that the prosecution will appeal within ten days.
The provisions for the reopening of this establishment, already flooded in the past,
“were not respected”
, maintained the lawyer.
“The law is a strict subject which does not cause any affect, I am not surprised
,” responded the group's lawyer, Me Michel Valiergue.
The retirement home was located near an evacuation canal, bordering a red flood zone.
Retention basins were supposed to prevent these overflows.
In vain.
That night, the incredible violence of the storm episode was obviously underestimated.