Fatal Fire at Overcrowded French Prison Claims Life, Injures Another Inmate

The Bordeaux-Gradignan prison only contains 240 cells for 608 inmates. Following the tragedy, an investigation was launched to determine the causes of the death of the detainee in his twenties. His cellmate was transported to the hospital in serious condition, according to the prosecutor’s office and unions of the most overcrowded prison in France.

The fire would have started around 6:50 p.m. in the affected cell with "very thick smoke", said Hubert Gratraud, FO delegate to the Bordeaux-Gradignan prison. Despite the speed with which the guards reacted, they only managed to "extract one of the inmates, born in 1984 in Algeria and whose vital prognosis was engaged when he was taken care of by the firefighters and the SAMU. The rescue workers could only note the death of the second individual born in 2002 in Morocco," according to the Bordeaux prosecutor’s office.

The two inmates were "in pre-trial detention for gang rape," the prosecutor’s office said, which ordered an autopsy and "toxicological analyses". Had it not been for an altercation that led to the eviction of a third inmate from the cell, the victims would have been three in number.