Dozens of witnesses and residents have been parading since the beginning of the week in the premises of the Zonal Directorate of Judicial Police South-East Lyon.
Investigators are trying to determine who was present before (and when) the fire started at 3 a.m. on the night of Thursday December 15 to Friday December 16 in the lobby of this dilapidated 7-storey building in Vaulx-en-Velin ( Rhone).
While the Lyon public prosecutor's office announced in a press release, this Tuesday, December 20 in the morning, the opening of a judicial investigation for heads of "willful degradation by fire resulting in total incapacity for work greater than 8 days and voluntary degradation by fire resulting in total incapacity for work of less than 8 days", nothing at this time brings the investigators back to a criminal trail.
No trace of flammable product was detected in the samples taken from the site.
VIDEO.
“They will jump, they will jump!
“: a neighbor tells of the terrible fire of Vaulx-en-Velin
However, according to our information, several residents of the building and residents interviewed claim that the lobby of the building was regularly occupied by young people from the town.
Since the beginning of the week, due to the extreme cold, the squatters had installed a sofa, tables and chairs there.
Several witnesses even declared to the investigators to have seen an auxiliary heating.
Electric or gas?
Asked, the parquet floor of Lyon had not answered us this Tuesday at the end of the afternoon.
According to our information, several witnesses told the police that they had discovered traces of fire in the hall in the days preceding the disaster.
And investigations are underway to determine if there is a link between this auxiliary heating and the traces in question.
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In addition, the investigators, who are now working under the authority of two judges, are trying to identify the people present in the hall and to determine the source of this support heating.
A witness interviewed by the police confirms that the investigators asked him if he had seen who was present in the hall and in the alley near the building.
Four people still seriously injured
This morning, the prosecution claimed that no investigation hypothesis is favored or ruled out, however, according to our information, it is indeed the accidental track that seems to be taking shape.
In addition to the ten deceased victims – six adults and four children – 24 people were injured in the fire, four of them seriously.
The fire had caused residents to rush into the void, a woman having even thrown her son from the fourth floor to save his life, before jumping from her balcony herself.