The French would have "known" the people in the village and the inhabitants would have "known" the French.
Was there some intention to keep them/themselves "safe" and then something went wrong? (I am not saying this is so, yet there are enough shows and movies with that theame that my mind retains this suspicion.)
Then, given the darkness of the apartment, this suggests a lack of windowns or other opennings to the outside so I wonders how a fire could have become large enough: where did the air come from to keep the flames alive?
More questions than answers. - R