Manager of Wintzenheim care home faces trial over deadly 2023 fire

Paris prosecutors have filed a formal request to bring the manager of the Wintzenheim gîte before a criminal court, alleging she knowingly failed to meet essential safety standards. The request follows a tragic fire in August 2023 that destroyed the facility near Colmar in the Haut-Rhin department, killing ten adults with mild mental disabilities and their caretaker. The deceased have been identified as Jennifer, Claude, Jimmy, Jérôme, Marcelle, Laure, Fatima, Régis, Christelle and Thibaud, ages spanning from the early twenties to the fifties, along with the unnamed caretaker.

The indictment describes the alleged conduct as a “manifestly deliberate violation of a particular duty of prudence or safety that unintentionally caused death or injury.” If the investigating judge accepts the prosecutor’s filing, the manager will be tried both in her own name and as the head of the operating company. Further details are expected as the legal process unfolds.