The hall of the Gravelines basketball club (Elite) was ravaged Monday afternoon by a “violent fire”, indicated the firefighters of the North, and “everything went up in smoke”, specified the club to the AFP.
“There is no longer a basketball room, everything has gone up in smoke,” said the president of the Gravelines club, Christian Devos. “Forty years of life in Sportica have gone up in smoke,” he added.
“The firefighters are now in control of the fire,” the Northern Departmental Fire and Rescue Service (Sdis) said around 5:15 p.m., highlighting the “ongoing extinction of residual fires.” The fire “started at the swimming pool, then spread to the cafeteria and basketball hall,” said the Northern prefecture.
At 4:00 p.m., more than 60 firefighters were mobilized to put out the fire ravaging the 3,000-seat room, which started around 12:45 p.m., according to Sdis du Nord.
“Two lightly injured” among firefighters
The Northern prefecture reported “two minor injuries among firefighters”. “If we had been in a period of high attendance at the swimming pool or if there had been training in the basketball hall, it would have been catastrophic,” underlined Christian Devos. But “everything was closed, under maintenance. And there was no training” for the basketball team when the fire started, he added.
Seventeenth and penultimate in Elite, Gravelines should have received Paris, current second, on Thursday. “The match will not take place,” regretted Christian Devos.