An investigation was opened for “search for the causes of death” and an expertise will be carried out during the day to try to determine the origin of the claim, the prosecution said.
A three-year-old girl died on the night of Saturday, 8 to Sunday 9 February in Nice (Alpes-Maritimes) in the fire of an apartment that was completely destroyed by the flames, the firefighters and the Nice prosecutor’s office said .
The fire broke out, for a reason still unknown, around 1 am in the apartment located on the sixth floor of a building, with eight, in a popular district north of Nice.
According to the first findings made by an expert, “It appears that the fire is probably of accidental origin”said the prosecution on Sunday evening in a press release.
The father could not save his daughter
“The first elements collected, it appears that the child was kept by his father”said the assistant prosecutor of Nice Julie André, while a police source had indicated in the morning that the child was alone in the apartment at the time of the drama. According to the prosecution, the child’s father, “Awakened by the flames, would have tried without success to extinguish the fire and went down by the balcony on the lower floor”. “Back by the staircase to try to rescue his daughter, with the help of a neighbor, the father managed to open the door to the apartment but could not enter it given the magnitude of the flames “added the press release.
Despite the intervention of around forty firefighters, assisted by 15 machines, the three -year -old girl died. Five other people were slightly injured, the firefighters said. Several families had to be relocated.
The prosecution opened “an investigation in search of the causes of death”, entrusted to the Nice judicial police. “The investigations continue to determine the course of the facts and the exact origin of the fire”, Add the press release.