North: she turns off her television before going to bed, all hell breaks loose in her living room

More fear than harm. Our colleagues from La Voix du Nord report that this night from August 2 to 3, a fire broke out in a small community of Escaudain, in the north of France, because of… a television. The 68-year-old TV owner had simply gone to bed after turning off the TV, like any other day. His son, questioned by our colleagues, explains: “She turned off her television. It’s an old CRT TV, she came out of her room and she heard a boom. At first she thought there was a knock on her door. Then she came back to her room, and the TV was on fire”. Image of horror in this small dwelling which is part of a beguinage and where several elderly people now live.

According to the victim’s son, the resident fortunately immediately called 18 then “she listened to their advice. She put a damp cloth on the TV waiting for them to arrive”. The commotion obviously alerted all the inhabitants of the surroundings, some of whom were in houses adjoining that of the victim. A neighbour, whose comments were recorded by The voice of the Northrecount : “I was going to bed and I heard the doorbell ring three times. I didn’t want to open because it was late, and I heard them say there was a fire.” The firefighters then arrived and were able to easily evacuate residents of the house affected by the fire as well as its two neighbours.

The victim was hospitalized

Despite the mobilization of firefighters from Denain, Somain, Bouchain and Valenciennes and the equipment on site – the large scale, three fire engines, an ambulance, a compressor van – the victim’s apartment was devastated by the explosion of his television. Asked by The voice of the Norththe head of relief operations described “an apartment totally devastated by smoke“. Late at night, the firefighters were also still in the process of extinguishing the hot spots that risked restarting the fire. The victim was transported to the Denain hospital center where she will be placed in a hyperbaric chamber in order to re-oxygenate her properly after inhaling toxic fumes at home.