The explosion and the deadly fire in Saint-Laurent-de-la-Salanque, in the Pyrénées-Orientales, have greatly weakened the walls and floors of the buildings and the securing of the premises is delaying the work of the investigators, who this Wednesday still cannot not access the buildings, according to a source from the gendarmerie.
During the night from Sunday to Monday, eight people, including a baby and a two-year-old child, died in the fire of three adjoining buildings in this town of 10,000 inhabitants, located about twenty km from Perpignan.
Affirming that they are not ruling out any leads, even criminal ones, the prosecution has opened an investigation for willful damage by fire resulting in death and damage.
Read alsoExplosion in the Pyrénées-Orientales: "It was panic", scenes of chaos in Saint-Laurent-de-la-Salanque
“Today, the biggest challenge is to be able to access the scene of the disaster in safety.
And, for the moment, the investigators still cannot do it, ”said Lieutenant-Colonel Manuel Boissière, deputy commander of the Pyrénées-Orientales gendarmerie group.
"With the support of building experts, props were put in place to consolidate the walls and prevent them from collapsing," he said.
“Collect as many testimonials as possible”
Some 140 soldiers have been engaged since the start of the tragedy, including 16 from the National Gendarmerie Criminal Research Institute (IRCGN, scientific police), according to Lieutenant-Colonel Boissière.
“Six of them work on what is called
the crime scene
for any event of this type, and the other ten on the identification of the bodies,” he added.
VIDEO.
Deadly explosion in the Pyrénées-Orientales: an 8th victim extracted from the rubble
He confirmed that the neighborhood investigation work is continuing, "to try to recover as many testimonies as possible on what has been heard and seen, in order to guide the hypotheses on which the investigators are working".
The day before, the prosecutor of Perpignan, Jean-David Cavaillé, had declared that three or four days were necessary to gather the elements allowing to explain what happened.
"It's a minimum," according to Lieutenant-Colonel Boissière.
The drama also injured four people, including one seriously: a man who jumped from a second floor to escape the flames.