Two men, aged 51 and 38, died on Saturday at the bottom of a well on Saturday in a house in downtown Villepinte, in Aude. Their deaths were caused by inhaling carbon monoxide, according to The Independent.
Owner of the house under renovation, the fifty-year-old emptied the water from the well located in the cellar using a thermal motor pump. As he did not respond to calls from his wife, the latter alerted a friend, who went down into the deep well of about 7 meters, says La Dépêche du Midi.
Alerted at the end of the morning, the firefighters found the two men inanimate. Their death was declared on the spot.
“An abnormal level of carbon monoxide has been noted. These two people worked together and both were intoxicated before drowning, ”explains the Carcassonne prosecutor's office.
In all likelihood, the motor pump is the source of these gas emissions. The prosecution, citing "a terrible domestic accident", did not order an autopsy.
The mayor of Villepinte, Alain Rouquet, emphasizes that the owner of the deceased house "leaves behind four children and a woman". An annex room of the Town Hall was opened to accommodate the families of the victims and a psychological unit was set up.
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Nine people in the house were also treated medically to determine whether they also inhaled carbon monoxide, said France 3 Occitanie.
