VIDEO. Trapped on the third floor, the victims of the fire in Place de la Trinité testify

“We took a basin of water to soak fabrics, before pressing them against the doors. We wanted to prevent the smoke from invading our apartment. It was panic”, tell the tenants of the third floor of this building located of Trinity in Toulouse. Some of these students are barefoot in the street, others in pajamas. “We lived the longest minutes of our lives. It was very scary,” they continue.

“Impossible to go down the stairs”

They remember being woken up suddenly, around 3 am. “People from below came to ring our doorbell. We heard screams. Then we noticed the very large flames coming from the 1st floor”, testify these young women. The anguish went up a notch when they realized that they could not go down the stairs. “It caught fire. We were trapped. The only way out was to go down through the windows, but it’s very dangerous.” Luckily, the firefighters finally arrived very quickly on the spot to rescue them. “We waited only 10 minutes but it was very long. We could see the flames through the floor. Fortunately, one of us had the unlikely reflex to seal the exits”, add the survivors.

Bars welcome victims

Also present in the building, Ricky, a 30-year-old Bangladeshi national, seemed lost. “We had to go out so quickly in the night, we were scared. I barely had time to take clothes and I didn’t even take my cell phone… For the moment, we don’t know where to go…

Many evacuees took refuge during the night in two bars in the Place de la Trinité, the Échanson and the Social. “The night was short… But kindly, they stayed open and kept us warm. They were very supportive of the neighborhood.” Several ready-to-wear shops, located at the bottom of the building, were damaged, in particular the Comptoir des Cotonniers and the Arpet. A good part of the morning, the firefighters extracted furniture and objects, some of them charred, which they piled up on the sidewalk.