• On the night of February 4 to 5, 2019, a fire broke out on the second floor of a building on rue Erlanger, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. Ten people were killed, 47 others wounded.
  • Essia Boularès, a 44-year-old woman suffering from addictions and psychiatric disorders, has been on trial since February 6, 2023. She admitted to starting the disaster after arguing with a neighbour. Her mental state is one of the issues at stake in the trial, while she had been released from psychiatric hospitalization a few days before the facts.
  • This Friday, the accused explained that she was not in her "normal state" when she committed this act "not thoughtful".

At the Assize Court,

"You weren't aware of the consequences?" The president of the Assize Court, Franck Zientara, raises the question to the accused whom he has been questioning about the facts since the beginning of the morning. Long brown hair, green top, hands behind her back, Essia Boulares answers in a tone voice from her cubicle. "Absolutely, I thought someone was going to put out the fire, I didn't expect the disaster that would follow." Ten people died and dozens more injured in the fire of the building on rue Erlanger, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, which it caused on the night of February 4 to 5, 2019. "Who?" the magistrate asks. "I don't know, a neighbor, firefighters," whispers this 44-year-old woman who says she does not have the soul of a "murderess".

President Zientara does not hide his skepticism. "When you set fire to a building, there's going to be deaths, aren't you?" "Not in a well-designed building," says Essia Boulares. Suffering from psychiatric disorders, she had moved into her apartment in 2016.

"There was no privacy, we heard everything"

His life, at the time, was "very chaotic." "I stayed at home, I used a lot of cannabis, alcohol, medicine... I put myself in dazes. A few days before the tragedy, she had been discharged from the psychiatric hospital of Sainte-Anne, where she had remained twelve days following a "mystical delirium". She made 13 stays there between 2009 and 2019.

Essia Boulares has never felt comfortable in this opulent looking building. Inside, she felt "a sense of discomfort" and struggled to live alone. No friends, except for a neighbor who shared her "esoteric beliefs." "There was no privacy, you could hear everything," she says. The walls are made of cardboard. I hate noise. The accused said she was particularly "disturbed" by the noisy sexual antics of a couple of neighbors. "It was screaming, screaming... It was very inappropriate. Hearing these noises, I found it disgusting. »

In this couple, there is Quentin L., a firefighter whose head did not "come back" to her and whom she felt "very aggressive". Can this animosity towards him be explained by his profession? "I've dealt a lot with firefighters in my lifetime. They often forcibly brought me to the psychiatric hospital, it's not a profession that I appreciate, "she admits.

"I was very paranoid"

When she heard these noises, she listened to "loud music" and tried to "ignore it." On the evening of the events, however, it was her neighbour, Quentin L., who came to her house to complain about the noise. But Essia Boulares is not in her "normal state". She feels "in great distress." She used some cannabis and drank alcohol. The day before, she had taken cocaine.

"I thought I was the Messiah, I was in great paranoia, I invoked God, the angels, the Holy Spirit." When she refused to open the door, the firefighter "broke down" her. A police patrol finally arrives on the scene. The accused claims to have taken them for "brigands", not to have seen their orange armband. "The officials note that the door was not broken down," notes the president of the court. "That's when I had this feeling of humiliation," she says.



At the time, she thinks of a "conspiracy" involving her neighbor and these three men whom she takes for "thugs" with their heads of "Islamists" and tries to remain "calm". After they leave, she becomes "out of control", feels in a "state of hysteria", "psychosis", "persecution". She feels "an extraordinary anger". "It was rage."

"I put on a lighter and left"

Essia Boulares particularly resents Quentin L. who made her look like "a brood" in front of them. So she sets fire to his door, "out of." "I put on a lighter and left," she admits. But it was not for the purpose of killing people, let me be clear. The accused repeats, she did not think about the consequences of her act. "My intention was absolutely not to commit arson. I didn't even turn around to see if it had taken off. »

After her arrest, Essia Boulares denied having committed the facts for several months. "I was in denial for a while, for protection, otherwise I would collapse and end my life," she says. It is then impossible for her to admit that she is "at the origin of this drama".

She eventually realizes what happened when she is brought to her home for the search of her home. "I know I made a mistake, I know I was the one who set it on fire," she whispers. "This is not a mistake, it is a crime," said the attorney general. "Yes, but I didn't want to," replied the accused. Even though I said things verbally, I didn't want to kill. I acted like a kid, I was angry. »

Tried until February 24, Essia Boulares faces life imprisonment and a fine of 150,000 euros.

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