Former Annecy artistic director Serge Bromberg is looking at a potential four-year sentence for involuntary manslaughter.
Bromberg was put on trial early last week for his involvement in a fire that claimed the lives of two people during an August 2020 heatwave. According to France’s TV5 Monde, he was storing nitrate film reels in the basement of a building that didn’t have a fire alarm or appropriate climate controls to house such flammable materials. When the reels caught fire, one person living in an apartment above the basement was killed by the flames and another died jumping from the fourth floor in an attempt to get away from them.
Investigators said that between 1,364-1,935 reels weighing between 2.5 and 3.6 tons were being kept in the basement, although Bromberg claims it was only 965 reels weighing around 2,100 pounds. He also said that the reels were originally destined for France’s National Cinema Center (CNC), but the organization had failed to pick them up.
