Christmas Day is a public holiday, we spend the day resting, sometimes with our loved ones. But some of us are not so fortunate; this is the case with firefighters.
A calm day
Christmas Day is not a particularly busy day for the firefighters at the Emergency Handling Center. On average, operators must handle 85 calls during this day, against more than 200 on a normal day.
“Usually it doesn’t stop. There, we are called mainly for current affairs, so personal assistance“explains Lieutenant Stéphane Guidoux, head of the room.
Sometimes an event can turn everything upside down
On this Christmas day, business is rather calm, “And that’s good“jokes Fabien Da Silva, operator of the center.
“There, for example, I have someone from Tonnerre who calls us because an elderly person at the home has had a heat stroke. But it is very common on Christmas days, when food is more plentiful. We transfer the call to the SAMU, which decides whether or not they will intervene“he explains.
In the middle of the afternoon, a call comes to put a little salt in idle activities. “We have a missing person in the Senonesian language. We had to send a dog handler there. We work with the police at the same time“explains Stéphane Guidoux.
Over the entire day of December 25, approximately 500 firefighters are mobilized throughout the department, a number equal to the other days.