Four people are still “in absolute emergency” and a 57-year-old woman is still “missing”, but we must already think about the aftermath, a few days after the explosion on June 21 at 4:55 p.m. of a building located in 277 rue Saint-Jacques, in the 5th arrondissement of Paris and home to a design school, the Paris American Academy. Explosion which also left about fifty injured and even more victims. In total, no less than three buildings – in addition to the one that collapsed – also suffered significant damage, as did a dozen businesses in the neighborhood.
On this subject, the president of the Île-de-France region Valérie Pécresse wrote to the mayor of the 5th arrondissement Florence Berthout to offer her financial support for the traders affected by the disaster. “In the aftermath of the explosion at 277 rue Saint-Jacques in Paris and while the emotion is still very strong, I would like to respond to your concern about the few dozen traders hard hit by the consequences of this tragedy. I would like to inform you that the region is ready to assume all its responsibilities and to mobilize emergency aid for them to rehabilitate their trade, as it has already done in the past,” she offered him.
A way according to the elected Ile-de-France to help traders “to restore their working tools and resume their activity as quickly as possible”. In addition, she suggests that he meet the merchants “very soon”, in order to “take stock of their situation” and “precisely assess the support needs of each of them”. And this, “as soon as the causes and responsibilities of this tragedy” are known, specifies Valérie Pécresse.
If for her part, Florence Berthout wanted to thank Valérie Pécresse for her help “to release emergency aid for the rehabilitation of our local shops impacted by the explosion in rue Saint-Jacques”, she did not have to remains given no indication of the conditions under which this aid will be distributed, nor on the time it would take. According to information from Le Parisien, the mayor also wrote to the prefect of police of Paris Laurent Nuñez “to ask him – provided that all the security conditions are respected – if the security perimeter could be further reduced so that the butcher and the restaurant Vietnamese (located respectively at 263 and 265 rue Saint-Jacques) can reopen as soon as possible”.
As a reminder, following this explosion, the Paris public prosecutor’s office opened an investigation into unintentional injuries resulting in total incapacity for work for more than three months by manifestly deliberate violation of an obligation of prudence or safety resulting from the law or of the regulation. Cautious, the Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau nevertheless insisted on recalling that “the criminal qualification retained” was “likely to evolve, in particular according to the state of health of the victims”. “It is for the moment confirmed that the building housed the school of the American Academy and that the first witnesses evoke a smell of gas”, but “the scientific findings can only be made with precision once the premises are secure. “, she said in a press release.
At the same time, the Parisian municipality indicated that the reception unit, open Wednesday at the end of the day in the premises of the town hall of the 5th arrondissement, “with the support of the services of the City and social landlords (Paris Habitat and RIVP )”, continues this weekend “to ensure the care of the victims and the affected residents”. On the night of the disaster, ten people with no accommodation solution, and who requested it, had thus “been able to be relocated”: “five by the services of the City of Paris and five by social landlords, in municipal structures or in hotels.
