“We will never forget it!” For Quentin, a firefighter from Lorraine, this mission will remain special. “You only have to see my dark circles to understand the hardness of the task.” 48 firefighters from Meuse, Vosges, Meurthe-et-Moselle and Haut-Rhin returned to their barracks this Saturday, July 23. They all returned from the monster fires of Gironde by bus for an arrival at the barracks of Toul. Nearly 21 hectares have burned for more than ten days.
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They were welcomed with honors by Lieutenant-Colonel Lepoutère: “We’re glad to see you all back because you’ve been through hell!” A term that often comes up in the mouths of firefighters. “It was unprecedented for us, we had never experienced that!”underlines Valérie, nurse firefighter. “We had flames several tens of meters high, we had to be extremely careful. The heat, the smoke… You have to experience it to understand, you don’t realize when you see the images on television.”
Touched by the solidarity and thanks of the inhabitants
Firefighters proud of the work accomplished. It must be said that in seven days in the hot sector of Landiras, the fight against the flames sometimes lasted 24 hours straight. “We are happy to see everyone back in good health, it must be said that we had never experienced such fires since the 70s”recalls Bernard Bertelle, chairman of the board of directors of SDIS 54. “Even if we hope not to see this type of fire at home with climate change, now our men have already been confronted and have gained experience.”
But more than the images of the fires, what unanimously marked all the firefighters: it is the mutual aid between the services and the solidarity of the Girondins and the Landais. Captain Pascal Humbert, from the Remiremont rescue center is the “forest fires” manager of the SDIS des Vosges remembers a morning: “Children had placed a huge sign with thanks in the form of a drawing in front of our place where we were resting. Everything was planned to welcome us, the local population thanked us and they did more than they had to for us.”
Since Friday evening, a new team from the Grand Est has taken the road to the Gironde, where the lights are still not fixed, to relieve colleagues returning from disposal.