Alpes-Maritimes: After a fatal fire in Grasse, the voluntary track is privileged

Investigation A 47-year-old man unknown to the police has been taken into custody. Three people died in this fire and three others were seriously injured

This photograph shows the burned facade of a five-storey building in the historic center of Grasse, August 13, 2023. — Vincent-Xavier MORVAN/AFP

The fire of a building in Grasse, which occurred on Sunday at dawn, killed three people. A man was placed on guard at; view as part of the investigation, according to a judicial source on Monday. “The Nice judicial police are seized of the investigation,” this source, confirming initial information from M6. The first findings lead to favor the track of arson.

“The fire expert proceeded to last night and this morning at; Examination of the scene of the accident. His first findings lead him to rule out a loss of accidental origin and favor the thesis of human intervention,” in a press release the public prosecutor of Grasse, Damien Savarzeix.

Three people died in the fire of a five-storey building in the historic center of Grasse which occurred at dawn on Sunday but was quickly brought under control. by firefighters. Two people perished in the flames which ravaged the the stairwell of this old building and another, which was probably defenestrated in an attempt to escape the fire, were destroyed. found unresponsive by firefighters in front of the building.

Three seriously injured

No element on the identity of the victims was only communicated. The emergency services also counted three seriously injured and four slightly injured. Eleven people, on the other hand, are unharmed. According to the mayor of this town on the Côte d’Azur, Jérôme Viaud (Les R’publicains), the building had “no structural problem” but renovation works of the facade and the common areas were “scheduled for October”.

The center of Grasse, a city known for its perfumeries, has a high rate of poverty, but renovation operations have been carried out there for years. Like other buildings in the historic center, the building where s’s declared the fire had been formal notice by the municipality to speed up the renovation work.