Firefighters targeted at Etampes: "They started running", describes a guard

At the end of the small car park which runs alongside the Jean-Laloyeau stadium in Etampes (Essonne), the carcass of the burnt out car is still there. The day before, around 11:30 p.m., while he was working with a crew on this banal fire, a firefighter was hit by a gunshot that crossed his calf. Immediately taken to the emergency room, the firefighter was able to return to his home on Wednesday.

As every year on the occasion of the July 14 festivities, Laurent, stadium keeper, was on the alert. "Our officials asked us to remain under surveillance," said the city employee. At the end of the evening, while I was doing my tour, I heard an explosion. When I got out, I saw this car on fire. So I immediately called the fire department. "

"They left and the police arrived"

In just a few minutes, the firefighters had mastered the disaster. But all of a sudden fall back and flee. "They started running," said the guard. One of them shouted that his colleague had just been shot and that they were taking him to the emergency room. They left and the police arrived. In the rush, they even forgot equipment. I put it aside and then they came to get it. "

Etampes (Essonne), this Wednesday. In the aftermath of the attack, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, came to show his support for the firefighters./LP/Florian Garcia  

With this new aggression, the debate on the safety of firefighters in intervention is revived. "The attacks we are undergoing are more and more violent," notes the deputy departmental secretary of the CGT at the departmental fire and rescue service in Essonne (Sdis 91) Jean-Christophe Cantot. Last May, the emergency call center was the target of fireworks. There, we are outright shot at. "

In Etampes, attacks by firefighters have become commonplace. In September, still in the Guinette district, a crew intervening for a flood in a cellar was threatened with a machete. Tried by the Evry-Courcouronnes Criminal Court, the author was sentenced to 15 months in prison. Last March, at the Croix-de-Vernailles this time, the heart massage of a victim in critical condition and suspected of being affected by the Covid-19 was delayed from ten to twenty minutes by a group who left took to law enforcement and police. The man died.

"It is what he represents that was targeted"

“We are witnessing an escalation of violence, notes for its part the CFTC-SPA vice-president of Sdis 91, Emmanuel Loby. There is no miracle answer because everything goes very quickly in these cases. But I see a kind of impunity among the authors and a laxity in the justice system. We are asking for real prison terms for those who are arrested, not sham. "

After indicating that the Ministry of the Interior would systematically file a complaint in such cases, Minister Gérald Darmanin went on site this Wednesday evening. "I was able to talk on the phone with this firefighter," he said. I felt shocked. He also told me that his injury was also psychological. In his short speech, the Minister of the Interior recalled that the chief sergeant affected by this shooting suffered "his third attack" in ten months. "It is unacceptable," he concluded. It was not he who was targeted but what he represents. An investigation was opened and entrusted to the police of the departmental security.