Europe 1 with AFP
modified to
8:08 p.m., March 25, 2022
An accidental fire hit a freight wagon parked at Valenciennes station, causing one death and three minor injuries on Friday. The injured individuals would be migrants, according to the head of the Departmental Directorate of Public Security in the North, Thierry Courtecuisse.
Drama in Hauts-de-France. A fire of “accidental” origin, according to the SNCF, in a freight wagon parked in the Valenciennes station, left one dead and three slightly injured on Friday afternoon, police told AFP. “Factually there is a death, a body on the way,” said the head of the Departmental Directorate of Public Security in the North, Thierry Courtecuisse. The firefighters only reported “three minor injuries, visibly migrants”, found on the platform near the burnt wagon.
Two firefighters slightly injured
Two firefighters were also slightly injured. The prefect of the North, Georges-François Leclerc, went there, noted an AFP journalist. Firefighters set up a tent in front of a medical vehicle outside the station, with two empty stretchers. By early evening, the fire was under control, according to firefighters. “Then the investigations will begin, and the search in the rubble, where it is possible that there are victims,” they added.
The fire broke out at 4:30 p.m., for a reason still unknown, in a wagon containing tires, which caused an impressive column of smoke, with, according to the firefighters, a “high risk of spreading to two refrigerated wagons and a TER”. The SNCF for its part announced an “accidental” fire, specifying that the station had been evacuated and the traffic interrupted.