The emotion is palpable at the barracks of Saint-Junien (Haute-Vienne), this Saturday, October 8. The ten firefighters and the Castets family are happy to be together. These firefighters come from several teams from Haute-Vienne and Creuse. Last July, they were sent as reinforcements to Hostens, in Gironde to help stop the gigantic Landiras fire.
For these firefighters, July 19, 2022, is a day they will find hard to forget. That day, the firefighters are called to protect the Castets family home. A house surrounded by the pine forest threatened by flames. Except that the protection operation “banal“according to Chief Warrant Officer Fabien Ducrot, Upper Viennese firefighter, almost turned into a disaster.
“We succeeded in the battle, but… it’s hard” says the firefighter
David Castets, the father of the family says: “we were evacuated to our neighbours, 200 meters from the house. We were with firefighters down the road. When the backlights were lit and the fire arrived at their height, the fire which was already 35 meters high rose to more than 70 meters. At that moment, the flames jumped over the firefighters and it created a huge and opaque cloud, like a nuclear mushroom“. One of the crews then found itself completely isolated, without communication. “With the firefighters who were with us we looked at each other and we all thought that they would stay there” adds David, “when they came back, on their face you could see that they had been scared, they weren’t people who had simply worked“.
However, at the time, Chief Warrant Officer Fabien Ducrot says that there is a kind of dissociation of the spirit, “we do not think of the danger. Ahead of us is fire. Behind, pine. We did what we had to do“. The shock, it happens after the operation, when you take off your helmet and land. Fabien Ducrot is a young dad, he continues with tears in his eyes, “we realize what we did afterwards… the shock is still there today, it will be tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. When you think about it, we succeeded in the battle, but… it’s hard“.
“We don’t even feel relieved” explains Séverine Castets, the mother of the family
David and his wife, Séverine, with tears in their eyes explain that today they feel guilty for having endangered the firefighters, “when we are told that the house is saved, we do not even feel relieved. It’s guilt, our house didn’t deserve so many sacrifices, you can’t risk your life for houses“.
To thank them, they made a donation of €5,000 to the Œuvre des Pupilles for the Orphans of the Firefighters of France.