Paris. Deadly explosion on Rue de Trévise: City Hall to be tried in fall 2026

Paris City Hall will be tried before the criminal court from October 20 to December 7, 2026, for the explosion on Rue de Trévise, which left four dead and more than 200 injured in January 2019, it was decided this Friday during a procedural hearing.

The city and the condominium trustee will appear in Paris for involuntary manslaughter and injury, as well as for "destruction, damage or deterioration by the effect of an explosion or fire of real or personal property."

Before the court specified these dates, lawyers for the City of Paris had argued that the trial should not interfere with the municipal elections scheduled for March 2026, although a hearing had been considered during the election period. "The municipal campaign could distort the proceedings. There is a risk of political exploitation," warned Sabrina Goldman, while her colleague Patrick Klugman assured that "the City of Paris is not shirking its responsibilities" but does not want a "trial wrecked" by the campaign.

When the dates were announced, the civil parties, who feared a postponement of the trial "indefinitely," expressed a certain satisfaction. The Association of Victims and Survivors of the Rue de Trévise Explosion (VRET) denounced a "scandal without a name." "Paris City Hall went to great lengths to request a postponement until after the municipal elections, and the courts upheld their request. Where is the place of the victims?" protested its president, Linda Zaourar. "The public prosecutor insists that this trial be held in 2026," asked prosecutor Nicolas Hennebelle.

On the morning of January 12, 2019, on rue de Trévise in the 9th arrondissement, an explosion killed four people, including two firefighters, injured more than 200 people and left around 400 homeless.

The judicial investigation highlighted "errors of carelessness and negligence on the part of the City of Paris," which failed to conduct "the necessary investigations to determine the causes of the sidewalk subsidence," the investigating judges noted in their order. This subsidence had led to the "sudden rupture" of a gas pipe that caused the explosion. For its part, the condominium manager delayed "in having the building's wastewater collector repaired," even though it had been informed "as early as November 25, 2015" of a leak, it was noted.