An Orpea logo, during the group’s general meeting in Paris, July 28, 2022 (AFP / JULIEN DE ROSA)
The trial of the ex-mayor of Biot (Alpes-Maritimes) and Orpea for the drowning of three residents of a retirement home in devastating floods in 2015 opened Tuesday before the Grasse criminal court with the dramatic evocation of the wave which submerged the establishment.
“We’ve been waiting for this for eight years. My grandmother was doing very well, she suffered an agonizing death,” Sandrine Delaup, civil party, explained to AFP. “They are all passing the buck but there has been total inaction and they need to recognize that.”
The former mayor, Guilaine Debras, as well as the city’s natural risks manager, Yann Pastierik, the former director of the private nursing home, Anaïs Gledel, and the Orpea group are appearing for involuntary homicide by clearly deliberate violation of an obligation of safety or prudence, an offense punishable by five years in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros, not including civil damages.
Ms. Gledel and Orpea are also being prosecuted for endangering the lives of others – punishable by one year in prison and a fine of 15,000 euros – for the ordeal of the residents who survived the waves.
On the evening of October 3, 2015, violent storms accompanied by exceptional rainfall transformed several rivers around Cannes and Antibes, on the Côte d’Azur, into torrents of water and mud causing the death of 20 people and considerable damage. .
In Biot, a town of 9,800 inhabitants, a wave of submersion caused devastation in several neighborhoods and particularly invaded the ground floor of the Clos Saint-Grégoire retirement home, at the foot of the medieval village, an establishment bought by Orpea in 2011 and now closed.
The president of the court read the statements of the nursing assistant and the carer who had just started duty for the night. Swept by the wave while trying to evacuate the residents of the ground floor, they had to escape through a window.
– Swimming in the dark –
Swimming in the dark, screaming for help into the void, they barely made it back to the first floor. Communications were impossible and the streets impassable.
But two firefighters arrived on foot, followed later by municipal police officers and a neighbor. They went down with the two women, waist-deep in water, to help the residents. Some were lying on their floating beds, others standing in the muddy, swirling water.
But it was too late for Marguerite Giunipero, 94 years old, Jacqueline Colombier, 91 years old and Josiane Chaix, 82 years old.
Everyone would have been spared if the residents had reached the first floor, as was done at the last minute during a previous flood in 2005. The four days of the trial should make it possible to determine responsibilities and why this was not done. do.
To do this, the court intends to examine what was known at the time about the risks of flooding in the town and the particular vulnerability of the nursing home, how each of the defendants had followed the events on the day of the tragedy and managed the situation. the same evening.
That day, Météo France had placed the department on “orange” vigilance due to a risk of storm – for the 3rd time of the year – but Biot did not follow the protocol of its Municipal Protection Plan (PCS), which planned in particular to warn residents of flood-prone areas.
“At the time, orange alert meant that we saw it coming, because 90% of orange alerts in the department had no impact in Biot,” assured Mr. Pastierik.
After the 2005 flood, awareness of the danger had faded, despite 19 natural disaster orders concerning flooding in the town between 1982 and 2011. Many relied in particular on retention basins. But the latter filled up in less than a quarter of an hour and their overflow accentuated the effect of sudden chaos.