Gilles Bourdouleix, mayor of Cholet (Maine-et-Loire), held Friday July 15 on franceinfo to return to the facts the day after the drama of the fireworks of July 14 in Cholet which left two dead and one seriously injured . “We say anything”, he said. Eric Bouillard, public prosecutor of Angers, stated in particular that part of the public was too close to the launch pad, “thirty to fifty meters” about. “Let him measure! I’m ready to look at the measurements”retorted the mayor. “There are security conditions that must be respected. It is not up to us to set them. It is up to the company that makes the fireworks, which then tells the organizer the security measures that must be taken. be taken”he explained. “No one questioned the security conditions at the time”insisted the mayor. He also specified that the municipality was not the organizer of the fireworks, but “the local festival committee.”
>> July 14 fireworks in Cholet: five questions about the accident that killed two people
franceinfo: How to explain the drama of last night?
Gilles Bourdouleix: We say anything. It is not the municipality that is organizing this fireworks display. Cholet Events is the local festival committee. When I hear that the artificer is 100 meters from the launch pad, it’s physically impossible. It can’t be 100 yards. I know where they were. They are not 100 meters from the launch pad. It makes no sense. Then, it’s also not the first time that the fireworks have been fired from this place. And when it was already fired a priori, according to the files that I brought out, there were no more limits to approach than where the people who were hit were located. Then, I have testimonies, a pyrotechnician went towards people who were near the fence of the football stadium from which the fireworks were fired, knowing that there was still a certain distance between this fence and the actual firing point.
“The artificer asked people to move back a little bit because they were too close at that time. He did not call the security services at all to push back the people who were there. C is that he did not consider that there was a danger.”
Gilles Bourdouleix, mayor of Choletat franceinfo
But there was indeed an intervention of the artificers. Then when I hear there were half a dozen police, it was a dozen. There were also about fifteen national police officers, including the police commissioner. No one questioned the security conditions at the time.
At no time did the security forces ask the public to move away from the launch pad?
No. At no moment ! Nobody intervened. An artificer, a priori, would have come to say: “We should back off a bit”. The people backed up, then moved forward again, but that didn’t really move the artificer who, at that moment, could very well have called the national or municipal police to ask that we come push back. the people. There was no particular order related to these questions.
The prosecutor says the victims were too close to the launch pad, “30-50 meters”. Do you refute his statements?
Let it measure! I’m ready to look at the measurements.
“There are security conditions that must be respected. It is not up to us to set them. It is up to the company that makes the fireworks which then tells the organizer the security measures that must be taken. be taken.”
Gilles Bourdouleix, mayor of Choletat franceinfo
No one actually asked for the site where the people in question were to be blocked. And knowing that it was obviously not the main site, since there was a whole place and a parking lot where the party was taking place with the podium, the orchestra and the bar from where people watched the fireworks . When I say people, it’s thousands. The victims of this terrible tragedy were in another area. At no time did anyone say it was not accessible.
What happened then?
I can only consider what I hear from the beginning, that is to say an accident related to the shootings. Anyway, safety rules or not, whether people are 100 meters away or whether people are 50 meters away, in any event, what happened was a failure in the firing of the rockets. When the rockets go horizontal, there is a problem. Rockets are meant to go upwards. Then it could be the hardware. I’m not saying it’s the artificer as such. You are driving on a highway. Your car swerves because the tire explodes. It’s not the driver who is responsible, it’s the tire that exploded.