burnt down, the Jonzac barracks quickly got back into operation

Woke up at 1:30 a.m. this Saturday, December 21, Captain Loïc Bourdon thought he was hallucinating. On call, the head of the Jonzac emergency center could expect to be called for a fire. But not that it is his own barracks that burn… He salutes the responsiveness of his men. “They were on the premises. Before being actors of the fire, they were its victims. » One man slept in the living center, six others in the dormitory. It was one of them who alerted his colleagues. The firefighters jumped on their outfits, in the locker room, while the room above their heads was in flames…

The disaster was able to be contained in the premises in which it started. The community center, refectory and office burned to the ground. The switchboard, the locker rooms and the emergency room suffered. The offices and bedrooms at the rear were not affected. The firefighters managed to evacuate all the equipment, without human damage. “Everyone is safe and sound, we can be happy about that. It's still hard, though. It was a place to live, we had good times there,” commented members of the association. She lost everything, in the middle of a calendar sales campaign.

“Everyone is safe and sound, we can be happy about that. It's still hard, though. It was a place to live, we had good times there”

Operational at 8:14 a.m.

Around fifty firefighters were mobilized overnight. The fire was brought under control within two hours. Very quickly, Sdis began setting up a temporary emergency center. “The Jonzac rescue center is of great organizational importance. There are 80 firefighters, around thirty professionals and 50 volunteers, for 1,600 outings per year,” figures the departmental director, Colonel Didier Marcaillou.

The fallback location is the one listed in the backup plan: the gymnasium on avenue de Chanzy, near the UBJ rugby stadium. “At 4 a.m. they had the keys. At 8:14 a.m., the first intervention left here,” relates the mayor of Jonzac, Christophe Cabri, amazed. A reception and operation triggering unit is installed near the handball cages. “This site suits us very well. We have room to park the machines and install antennas,” notes Christian Lepage, number 2 of Sdis.

Two weeks in transit

At the end of the morning, the Haute-Saintonge section of the “logistical support” branch, made up of former firefighters, was cooking a meal for the mobilized troops. This is where the staff will sleep for the next few days. “It’s transparent for the population, it doesn’t change anything,” underlines Colonel Marcaillou.

He estimates this temporary solution at the Chanzy gymnasium to take two weeks. On the barracks side, it is necessary to isolate the damaged part, check that the rest of the structure can house the machines, install modules in the courtyard, in addition to the one which already houses the sports hall.

The Jonzac barracks, around fifty years old, were known for their dilapidation. A new center was in the pipeline, in the Mouillère area. Its necessity is more confirmed than ever.