"I saw a small flame light up on her hair": what we know after the accident that burned a young woman in a nightclub in Juan-les-Pins

The evening turned tragic. It was 2:30 a.m. on the night of Saturday to Sunday, July 27, when a terrible accident occurred at the You nightclub in Juan-les-Pins, sending a 22-year-old woman to the burns hospital in Marseille.

We explain everything to you.

Burned by the shots the bartender was lighting

It was while the nightclub bartender was setting fire to shots that the accident occurred.

" I was standing next to her at the bar. I saw a trace of fire on the counter; the bartender was preparing shots. Suddenly, I heard a glass explode. It hit us everywhere, even in our eyes. At first, I thought it was pieces of glass, but it was alcohol," explains a witness to the scene who wished to remain anonymous. "She fell onto my shoulder, I looked at her and saw a small flame start on her hair. And then she suddenly started to catch fire, all over her upper body . "

Very quickly, other people present at the scene threw water on the young woman, before the latter was taken outside and the firefighters took charge of her.

His brother's story

Although he was not present that evening, the victim's brother collected testimony from his friends , corroborating that of the witness cited above.

According to him, his sister "was there, at a reasonable distance. But the bartender wanted to fan the flames by throwing alcohol. My sister was thrown alcohol and caught fire . She fell to the ground, managed to tear her t-shirt and the people around her managed to put out the fire with their clothes. There was a kind of explosion , her friends got pieces of glass in their faces."

A video of the accident was reportedly posted on Snapchat, he said.

Second and third degree burns and placed in an artificial coma

The young woman, who suffered second and third degree burns, was injured on 20% of her body, particularly on the upper body.

Taken to the burns hospital in Marseille, she was placed in an artificial coma to stabilize her condition.

The party continues in the establishment

According to the victim's angry brother, the party continued as if nothing had happened after the accident: "And the worst part is that the club staff did nothing but throw her out with water and ice cubes . It was her friends who called the fire department. And the party continued inside the club!"

The accident, however, caused panic within the establishment, as a witness recounted on social media: " I was present not even five meters away during the accident, indeed the young girl was completely burned by the flames coming from the bar right next door, there was a crowd movement inside the nightclub ."

Management reacts

Contacted, the management of the establishment defended itself , stating that it had called for help and had not simply left the young woman outside.

" We were with her, we saw her injuries and that things weren't going well, she was conscious. We got the numbers of her friends to check on her but they no longer answer ."

Sébastien Taupin, one of the four partners who run Le You, also defended the establishment's decision to remain open despite the accident: "There were people in the club, we couldn't turn off the music and risk disturbances when we had an injured person to take care of outside."

Finally, he pleads "human error," claiming that the bartender "can't get over what he did, he's in shock, on the verge of depression," and that the latter " tested negative for drugs and alcohol ."

Administrative closure of the establishment?

An investigation is underway at the Antibes police station to determine the exact circumstances of the accident.

For the time being, the Alpes-Maritimes prefecture has not yet commented on a possible administrative closure of the establishment, as was the case for the restaurant Le Caveau 30 , in Cannes, after a heat lamp accident which burned five people in November 2024.