This Tuesday, February 6, in the middle of the afternoon, the usual tranquility of the small town of Mesnil-Réaume (Seine-Maritime), in the Eu-Le Tréport sector, was disrupted by the massive arrival of sappers -firefighters around the elementary school.
No fire on the horizon, but many children suffering from stomach aches and vomiting.
“We were called around 3 p.m.
And we quickly made the decision to intervene in numbers, including 19 machines, because we did not know what was happening and we needed to be able to evacuate as many children as possible if necessary, especially since we were in a rural environment, kilometers from the hospital centers in the area,” explains Captain Julien Paillette, from the Dieppe fire and rescue center, who took charge of the operations in which more than thirty people participated. firefighters.
“We knew there had been a few cases in the morning.
Other students had gone home, but in total 17 children, between 7 and 10 years old, were affected by the same symptoms.”
Also arriving on site, a team of firefighters specializing in biological and chemical risks quickly removed doubts about the presence of carbon monoxide or products that could cause these discomforts.
“This allowed everyone to return to shelter in the classrooms because we had asked to evacuate them as a precaution,” continues Captain Paillette, who specifies that no student had to be taken care of and hospitalized.
Other cases in establishments in the sector
At the same time, checks were carried out on the boiler by the company in charge of its maintenance as well as analyzes by Veolia teams on the drinking water network.
Without detecting a problem.
“The hypothesis of food poisoning was also eliminated quite quickly since not all the children had eaten in the canteen.
And others had been sick before the meal.”
Also present on site, doctors from Samu 76 examined the little patients and their diagnosis finally came: a dazzling epidemic of viral gastroenteritis.
News which reassured the many parents worried about such mobilization.
And which was shared with relief by the municipality on its Facebook page.
She also specified that other cases had been observed in schools in the area, in Baromesnil and Monchy-sur-Eu.
And also took the opportunity to thank all the many professionals who participated in this spectacular intervention.