“The barracks are designed to carry out around 8,000 interventions per year”
“The barracks are designed to provide around 8,000 interventions per year, almost 80% of which are rescue and emergency care for people,” reported Patrick Weiten, president of the departmental council and the board of directors of Sdis 57 (1). . The fire represents only 7% of the activity of the fire fighters.
The Metz barracks will have 10 intervention vehicles including two ambulances. The construction of the building will occupy a plot of 3,800 m2 that the City purchased from the Mixed Economy Company (SEM) Metz Techno’pôles to make it available to Sdis.
The size of this barracks will be “significantly smaller than that which it replaces”, worried the CGT of Sdis 57 which has been denouncing for several years a “shortage of staff”.
This downward trend goes beyond the borders of the Moselle. The EU statistical office, Eurostat, reported in 2022 that France had reduced its workforce by more than 5,400 firefighters in one year (the largest drop in Europe!) even though the number of interventions increase.
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In Moselle, where the number of interventions remained stable over this period, the workforce consists of 4,300 volunteer firefighters and 700 professional firefighters. A distribution which demonstrates the significantly higher share of volunteering.
“Moselle is a land of volunteerism,” said Patrick Weiten on the Blida construction site, recalling that the Metz unit sponsors two classes of Civil Security cadets in the Paul-Valéry and Jules-Lagneau colleges. in Metz. Sdis 57 ultimately aims to have one class of cadets per college in Moselle.
Faced with criticism about the size of the barracks and the number of firefighters, the Sdis prefers to think in terms of “operational coverage over the entire urban area with other barracks” for a “more adapted and effective” response.
Thus, Sdis 57 has 5,000 men and women spread across 180 barracks. Every day, the Operations Center receives 500 calls which result in more than 200 daily interventions, or one every seven minutes!
