ELEVEN DEAD IN A TRAGIC FIRE OF A COTTAGE HOSTING DISABLED IN FRANCE EAST

USPA NEWS - A tragic fire broke out this Wednesday, August 9, 2023, around 6:30 a.m., in a lodging for disabled people in Wintzenheim (Haut-Rhin) and resulted in the death of eleven (11) who are "potentially deceased". Ten of them are people with disabilities (cognitive odds), and a supervisor. All the victims, dead slept in the 1st floor of the building. According to the authorities, the victims were "slightly mentally handicapped under supervision", describes Nathalie Kielwasser, vice-prosecutor of Colmar. The French President, Emmanuel Macron was the first to publish on his X account (Ex Twitter), his condolences "with the victims, the injured (and) their loved ones", while thanking the forces "Thank you to our security forces and our mobilized emergency services", concludes the President of the Republic. "In Wintzenheim, the flames ravaged a guesthouse which accommodated people with disabilities and their companions. Faced with this tragedy, my thoughts go out to the victims, to the injured, to their loved ones. Thank you to our security forces and our mobilized emergency services. At the end of the morning, the PM, Elisabeth Borne indicated on X that she will travel to Wintzenheim.

TEN DISABELD DIED IN THE TRAGIC FIRE IN WINTZENHEIM, SEVENTEEN PEOPLE SAVED IN TIME From the alert, the Codis (departmental operational center for fire and rescue services) deployed 76 firefighters, four fire trucks, four ambulances, an advanced medical post and three ladders to contain the fire and ensure the catch in charge of the victims, specified the prefecture. According to the firefighters, who mobilized significant resources to fight the disaster (76 firefighters), 11 people, all adults, "missing". The Haut-Rhin prefecture specifies that these 11 missing are "potentially deceased". Seventeen people were able to be saved, while some cannot be found to this day. The group of twenty eight people resided in this building which burned down when it was not intended for a capacity of twenty people.

The French President, Emmanuel Macron was the first to publish on his X account (Ex Twitter), his condolences "with the victims, the injured (and) their loved ones", while thanking the forces "Thank you to our security forces and our mobilized emergency services", concludes the President of the Republic. "In Wintzenheim, the flames ravaged a guesthouse which accommodated people with disabilities and their companions. Faced with this tragedy, my thoughts go out to the victims, to the injured, to their loved ones. Thank you to our security forces and our mobilized emergency services. At the end of the morning, the PM, Elisabeth Borne indicated on the social network X (formerly Twitter) that she was going there. “My first thoughts are with the victims and their loved ones. I salute the mobilization of the firefighters,” she added. The recent Minister of Disability did not deign to go to the site and offer her condolences to the families of the bereaved disabled victims.

A police investigation begins, while a mystery has already taken place in the circumstances of this tragedy, questioning whether the building welcoming disabled people was up to standard? The ten out of the eleven victims, being handicapped, and sleeping in a floor of the 1st floor, raises questions about their ability to be able to save themselves and flee the fire, which is ravaging the wooden frame of the building? The supervisors, responsible for the protection of De Facto vulnerable disabled people, have they played their role of scaring them away from the flames and saving them even before the arrival of help and firefighters?
The maximum capacity of the building, indicating twenty people, should have been respected and even more so when it comes to disabled residents, deserving extracare in view of their impairment.

The contempt vis-à-vis disabled people, in certain places, in France, confirms the disinterest of certain men and women politicians and French institutions, including the United Nations and the Council of Europe, who have recalled the approach that is too "medico -social" ...and not very socially inclusive. The absence of the Minister for Disability (not disabled herself), recently appointed in last July, on the site of this tragic incident, demonstrates the disinterest aroused by the condition of disabled people in France.