Deadly Apartment Fire in Vaulx-en-Velin Leaves 10 Dead, Community Mourns

A few days after the deadly fire, Vaulx-en-Velin is still in shock. Among the victims, Mohamed Foued, one of the faithful of the Okba mosque. A funeral prayer had been organized in his memory a few days earlier. "He said he had only one ambition: to regularize his situation to bring his mother to France and have her treated," tells Saphirnews Imam Chana Benaïssa, "disturbed by this drama". The body of this young undocumented worker, 40 years old, was repatriated to Algeria, where he will be buried. As for Mouna and her five children of Somali origin, they will all be buried in the Muslim section of the Vaulx-en-Velin cemetery.

At the Ditib mosque in Décines, the neighboring town, a prayer was organized on Tuesday for Umran Bagiran Kaplan, a young woman who died trying to escape by the stairs. Her body was repatriated to Turkey. She leaves behind a husband with whom she had married in the summer of 2022. On Thursday, a white march was organized in tribute to the eight other victims of the fire. It was attended by many Muslim faithful.

Only three of the children present in the apartment on the night of the tragedy survived. They too had jumped out the window. For now, the origin of the fire has not yet been determined. The Lyon public prosecutor’s office had opened an investigation for "voluntary arson causing death" which is ongoing.