Three people died in a fire which broke out late in the night from Monday to Tuesday in an informal housing area in Cayenne, Agence France-Presse (AFP) learned from a judicial source. President Emmanuel Macron, visiting Guyana, went there on Tuesday March 26, said the Elysée.
An investigation has been opened, declared Yves Le Clair, the public prosecutor of Cayenne. According to him, initial findings suggest that the fire was not of criminal origin. Around twenty homes were destroyed by the fire “in the slum” and firefighters were still on site at midday looking for possible additional victims.
The research is made complicated by the locations and characteristics of the homes, corrugated iron huts, made particularly sharp and hot by the fire. A man, suspected of being the cause of the accidental fire, is in police custody, Mr. Le Clair said.
According to the mayor of Cayenne, Sandra Trochimara, cited by the Guyane La 1ère channel, “around twenty people were taken to the gymnasium” of a neighboring stadium to be accommodated there. The fire took place in the Baduel district. An area of precarious housing had already burned to the ground in 2020, without causing any casualties.
