Four people die in French holiday home fire

A fire that broke out on Monday killed four people at a cottage in southwestern France, where adults with learning disabilities had gone on holiday, a French government official said.

Including a couple who owned the house, 14 people aged 20 to 75 were inside the stone house when the blaze broke out before dawn in the village of Montmoreau, according to local officials.

The guests included eight people with learning disabilities as well as four carers.

The victims included one of the owners of the isolated farmhouse and three people with disabilities, including a 60-year-old woman, said France's minister for people with disabilities, Charlotte Parmentier-Lecocq.

"The woman who owned the property entered voluntarily to rescue the people inside and lost her life in the attempt," Parmentier-Lecocq said.

Rescue teams arrived on site 20 minutes after they were called, but were unable to resuscitate one person they evacuated, declaring the victim dead by asphyxiation, deputy prefect Jean-Charles Jobart said.

They then found two bodies in the remains of the house, he said. 

A fourth victim was found later in the day in the burned-down guesthouse, said Parmentier-Lecocq.

A fifth person remains missing, though authorities expect to find them "in the rubble," she added.

The fire, brought under control late in the morning by some 85 firefighters, also left four people injured -- one of whom was initially in critical condition but is now stable, the minister said.

The public prosecutor's office has opened an investigation into manslaughter or unintentional injury, said Mathieu Auriol, a deputy prosecutor in the southwestern city of Angouleme.

The National Gendarmerie Criminal Research Institute will carry out an investigation to "look for the causes" of the blaze, he added.

Deputy prefect Jobart said state services had inspected the cottage two years ago and approved it to welcome people with disabilities during the holidays.

But Parmentier-Lecocq later said that the fire had started in an adjacent building, which had not undergone inspection in 2023.

"We don't know what caused the fire, whether the smoke detectors worked properly, or how people became aware of the fire," she added.

The minister added that the organisation that arranged the trip was reputable and trained, "particularly in fire safety".

The fire comes almost two years after another blaze at a holiday home hosting adults with learning disabilities and their companions killed 11 people in eastern France.

A prosecutor found that the home in the town of Wintzenheim was unlicensed and flouting fire security standards required for such a property.

The guests on the lower floor of the timbered residence all managed to escape alive, but those on the upper floor found themselves trapped.

It was the deadliest such fire disaster in the country since a blaze at a bar in the northern city of Rouen in 2016 killed 14 people.