Aigle: end of preventive evacuation of the industrial zone

Here, 15h42

A night without respite. This is what firefighters from several departments in Valais experienced during the evening from Saturday to Sunday. While the storms which hit the canton of Valais led to the evacuation of hundreds of people, causing the partial closure of the A9 motorway and making several arteries impassable, the commander of the Sion fire brigade provides some details on the operations.

“Saturday evening had taken a rather good turn. We even thought about lightening the system at the end of the match when the situation changed a notch,” says David Vaquin, head of the Sion municipal management staff. “The level of the Borgne started to rise sharply, followed shortly after by the Rhône.”

At midnight, the first evacuations of residents began on the right bank of the Borgne before extending to Camping Sedunum and the Old Village of Bramois. Nearly a thousand people were evacuated to Sion between midnight and 6 a.m. Seventy of them had to sleep in civil protection shelters.

“We were forced to reduce the system”

A surveillance system had been in place for days. From 11 a.m. on Saturday, the teams were ready to face several scenarios. During the night, the Sédunois firefighters were able to benefit from reinforcements from surrounding bodies.

The problem is that this solidarity could reach its limits if the storms continue. “Faced with the extent of the bad weather affecting several places in the canton, the firefighters who came as reinforcements had to return to their municipal territory.”

Consequence: “We were forced to reduce the number of personnel to give the firefighters working on the ground during the night a break,” explains David Vaquin.

Currently, the Borgne has begun to recede. But the firefighters continue to work hard according to David Vaquin. “We are resuming operations to pump out the water that is flooding the cellars of several homes and are maintaining our watercourse monitoring system.”

Etonam Ahianyo