Khireddine Rahmouni, black jacket over white sweater, arrived with his father and friends in the wedding hall in Périgueux this Wednesday, March 30. The family and the three little girls he sheltered are there too. The mayor of Périgueux, Delphine Labails presented him with the medal of courage for his act of bravery rue de Solférino. On Sunday March 27, the 27-year-old was with a friend in Place Saint-Martin when he heard screams from a building next door. A mother asked for help for her three children. They were stuck in their apartment because of a fire in the commons.
“I want to thank my father”
While his friend was calling the fire department, Khireddine Rahmouni climbed the facade to reach the second floor. Arrived inside the apartment, he took the children and the mother to safety in a room near the window before the arrival of the firefighters. For the young man who lives in Boulazac “it was a reflex and it was normal but the next day I had a lot of calls, I was congratulated at work, my colleagues applauded me, I was not expecting all this at all, my father is very very very proud. I want to thank him because he was the one who brought me to France”.
Arrived in France in 2007 “the best day of his life”
Khireddine Rahmouni was born in Algeria, he arrived in France at the age of 13 in 2007 “It was April 8, a Sunday, the best day of my life”. He joined the Michel de Montaigne college before going to high school “I also thank my teachers who have been behind me, they took good care of me and I integrated myself little by little”the young man continues, “Integration is not about being called Eric Zemmour, drinking alcohol or eating pork, integration is respect for parents, it’s school, it’s what that I learned in France”.
The young man works in events and security in the Paris region but with the covid crisis, he now lives with his parents in Boulazac and currently works in a temp agency. His father, Nordine Rahmouni looks at his son with admiration: “I give good advice to my children, I always say there are three things: education, school and respect”.