At least nine people are dead and two were missing after a fire at a vacation home for adults with “slight disabilities” in France, local officials and country leaders said.
The blaze broke out sometime before 6:30 a.m. local time Wednesday at a private accommodation in Wintzenheim, a commune in the Haut-Rhin region in Grand Est in northeastern France.
Leading the rescue work of firefighters, Lt. Col Philippe Hauwiller said crews were searching for the bodies of two others who were feared dead, The Associated Press reported.
Hauwiller said 17 people were evacuated, including one person who was taken to a hospital to be treated for serious injuries.
Only those who were staying on the ground floor of the home escaped the fire, he said. Eleven people were trapped on the upper floor and in a mezzanine area that fire officials said collapsed.
The fire department deployed 76 firefighters, four fire engines and four ambulances to the scene. Forty police officers also responded.
Fire reported under control
It’s not immediately known what caused the fire, which was under control by midday.
“The flames ravaged a lodging which accommodated people with disabilities and their companions,” French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Faced with this tragedy, my thoughts go out to the victims, to the injured, to their loved ones. Thank you to our security forces and our mobilized emergency services.”
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne posted on X that she was heading to the site.
“My first thoughts are with the victims and their loved ones,” she wrote. “I salute the mobilization of the firefighters.”
‘Slight intellectual disabilities’
The vacationers included adults with “slight intellectual disabilities,” Christophe Marot, secretary-general of the local administration, said on news broadcaster France Info.
The dead and those thought to be dead, he said, are 10 people with disabilities and and a person accompanying the group.
The group usually lives in the city of Nancy in eastern France, according to the statement from the Haut-Rhin regional government.
Contributing: The Associated Press
Natalie Neysa Alund covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter @nataliealund.
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