On January 12, 2019, a strong detonation caused by a gas leak killed 4 people and injured 66, rue de Trévise. Four years after the tragedy, the victims’ associations denounce the slowness of the compensation procedure.
The associations of the victims of the rue de Trévise explosion deplore the heaviness and slowness of the compensation procedure, four years after the tragedy commemorated on Thursday in this thoroughfare in central Paris.
By the end of November 2022, almost a year after the announcement of a framework agreement allowing compensation without waiting for the legal outcome, eight victims had been compensated for a total amount of 107,000 euros, according to documents that AFP was able to consult.
Far from the approximately 400 victims put together by the two associations, and given the 20 million euros paid by the City of Paris for the compensation fund.
“There are many blocks”, regrets, contacted by AFP, Dominique Paris, president of the Trévise Ensemble association according to which “the files presented in June have not yet received an offer”.
“It’s a colossal work that brings us back to disaster, 4 years later,” he adds.
Difficulty with the expert
On 12 January 2019, a strong detonation caused by a gas leak in front of 6 rue de Trévise left 4 dead, 66 injured and around 400 residents affected.
“We thought it would be fluid but it’s not,” abounds Linda Zaourar, president of Vret (Victims and survivors of the explosion on rue de Trévise), the other association.
He criticizes the claims liquidator Sedgwick, file manager, for “difficulty” or “refusal” to “open files”, but also for “endless discussions to discuss damages”.
Meeting in mid-December, the monitoring committee reports a “particularly cumbersome procedure” when the alleged damage exceeds 100,000 euros, which “assumes the coordination of up to eight different agendas”, including those of the experts appointed by each of the five insurers.
“We have the impression that they discover the victims as if Treviso were the first tragedy in France”, sighs Linda Zaourar. Contacted by AFP, Sedgwick had not reacted on Monday.
Even if the two coordinators chosen by the interministerial delegate for assistance to victims (Diav) “are in favor”, “the system is not at all satisfactory”, agrees the mayor (Orizzonti) of the 9th arrondissement Delphine Bürkli.
Waiting for a second opinion
By the end of November, 161 individuals and 9 legal entities had signed up to the framework agreement and sent their claims to Sedgwick, who had presented 44 compensation offers, for a total of €607,000.
On January 17, 2022, the Paris Council unanimously voted in favor of this agreement in a context of strong criticism of Mayor Anne Hidalgo, accused by the victims of not being interested in their fate and of dragging the dossier.
The Paris City Hall is indicted in the criminal part of the case, as is the curator of 6 rue de Trévise.
The long-awaited second opinion, requested by the town hall, must be expressed by the end of February.
