Trial of heating engineer for carbon monoxide poisoning in Bussang

The Epinal court will render its decision on October 30 in the case of the death of an 84-year-old woman and her 63-year-old son, poisoned by carbon monoxide in Bussang, in the Vosges. On Friday, two years of suspended imprisonment were requested against the 52-year-old heating engineer who worked on their boiler before the tragedy.

The prosecution also requested a five-year ban on exercising the activity of heating engineer on the ground and a fine of 5,000 euros. The two victims were discovered dead at their home by a nurse on January 9, 2026. The autopsy concluded asphyxiation by carbon monoxide.

An “incompatible” second-hand burner in question

Two days before the bodies were discovered, the defendant came to repair their broken boiler. While waiting for missing parts, he returned the next day with a second-hand burner, “out of conscience, because it was cold, it was snowing” and because the octogenarian “no longer had hot water and heating”.

According to an expert commissioned during the investigation, this burner was however “incompatible” with the boiler. Associated with the “condenser leak”, this incompatibility “allowed the escape of gases from the boiler room and the rapid production of carbon monoxide”.

Reclassification as manslaughter

The heating engineer, who admitted his guilt, said he was “sorry” and felt that “this kind of drama should never happen”. He claims to have carried out the necessary tests before his departure and speaks of an “accumulation of things”. Prosecutor Quentin Laurent particularly questioned his departure from home “while there is still a burning smell in the boiler room”.