Three dead in multi-origin field fire that destroyed home in western France
Three people died when a fire with multiple ignition points swept through about 20 hectares in Lhoumois, Deux-Sèvres, destroying a rented house and an agricultural building on 11 August.
Fire sweeps through rural village
A fire that started in a field near the village of Lhoumois in the Deux-Sèvres department of western France on Tuesday 11 August destroyed a rented house and an agricultural hangar, killing three people. The gendarmerie was alerted at approximately 16:10 to several fire outbreaks in a field near Lhoumois, a commune of about 150 inhabitants roughly 50 kilometres west of Poitiers in the Vienne department. The flames spread rapidly through hedges and meadows, ravaging about 20 hectares before reaching the buildings. Mayor Jean Pillot, who spoke to BFMTV, said the fire began near a road linking Lhoumois to a nearby village. The fire first reached a forage hangar and then spread to the adjacent house, which BFMTV described as a gîte. The rapid spread across the agricultural landscape left little time for the occupants to react.
- Gendarmerie alerted to multiple fire outbreaks in a field near Lhoumois
- Two carbonised bodies found in the ruins of the destroyed house
- Third body recovered from the debris
Victims not yet identified
Emergency teams first located two completely carbonised bodies in the ruins of the house on Tuesday evening. A third body was found on Wednesday morning, according to a source close to the investigation cited by AFP. The victims have not yet been formally identified. The gendarmerie said the first bodies recovered were so badly burned that they were unidentifiable on site. According to the regional daily La Nouvelle République, the house had been rented for several years by a couple and their child of about 20 years. The mayor told the newspaper that everything points to the victims being the tenants, who were not answering their phone. Pillot suggested the victims may not have perceived the fire's advance, as quoted by the Spanish news agency EFE.
With the heat, perhaps they had the shutters down.
Investigation and arson suspicion
The investigation has been assigned to the Parthenay research brigade, which deployed a large security perimeter around the affected area on Tuesday evening. Investigators from the Institut de Recherche Criminelle de la Gendarmerie Nationale (IRCGN) based in Pontoise, in the Paris region, were also dispatched to the scene to carry out examinations and support the inquiry. The detection of multiple initial ignition points has raised the suspicion that the fire was deliberately set, though authorities have not confirmed this hypothesis. The police are continuing to investigate the causes of the fire. BFMTV initially reported that at least two people had died on Tuesday 11 August and a third person was being searched for in the rubble, before the third body was recovered on Wednesday morning.
Heat and drought conditions
France, like much of Europe, is experiencing heat waves and drought, with consequences for public health and an increased risk of wildfires. The fire in Lhoumois began at several points in a field and spread with great speed across approximately 20 hectares of agricultural land before reaching the residential and farm buildings. The rapid propagation through dry hedges and meadows was facilitated by the drought conditions affecting the region. The blaze destroyed both a forage hangar and the adjacent rented house, leaving three people dead.
