Daniel Bürgi is not a fan of the Golden State Warriors basketball team. Hoodies aren’t really his thing either. He normally never wears one, smiles Sandra Guenat, waving the piece of fabric hanging behind her friend’s neck. But he will have to get used to it.
As luck would have it, this type of clothing now represents a good part of his wardrobe, replenished thanks to donations from the inhabitants of the village the day after this disaster on Thursday, October 3. The day his house, at the entrance to the village of Pleigne, burned. He lost everything in a matter of minutes. All his memories. He no longer has any photos of his parents. The rooms where he so often slept his children no longer exist. Neither does the work he undertook on the building for years.
“No longer want anything”
“People tell themselves that it’s just a house, that it’s not a big deal. But you have to have experienced it to know what it feels like,” Daniel Bürgi said slowly. “I will never be the same again . It’s something that ruins a person. I don’t want anything anymore.”
That afternoon, he just left his house. He has lived there for twenty-five years. It’s around 5 p.m. He has an appointment at the oratory, where he was to mow the lawn. Meanwhile, it was Mayor Stéphane Brosy, passing in front of the building, who smelled smoke and called the firefighters. He also warns close neighbors with the help of a lady who had stopped. “The fog was cut with a knife. You could hardly distinguish it from the smoke. But from the smell, you could tell that it wasn’t just fog. Maybe if it had been a blue sky, We could have saved the house.”
At one point, recounts Stéphane Brosy, the village was cut in two by the thick gray cloud, then by the flames blown by the strong wind.
Horses and rabbits rescued
When he learned of the drama that was unfolding, Daniel Bürgi quickly returned to the scene. He does not hesitate to open the door and rush inside, between the flames, to rescue his two horses. His two rabbits also escaped. However, he was unable to do anything for the fish in his large aquarium and his chicks. It was already too late.
“He wanted to go back, but he was already coughing. I held him back,” adds the mayor. Her friend Sandra Guenat quickly took her home. “He was shaking a lot. It was too hard to watch the house collapse.”
The next morning, reality suddenly hits him. The first emergency is to go buy underwear, recalls Sandra Guenat, then to go and redo all the cards he no longer had. A prize pool has also been set up, as well as a clothing collection, in which many residents will participate.
Today, Daniel Bürgi has something to wear again, but… “there are always these little things that we only realize are missing at the moment”, sighs Sandra Guenat. When it snowed, for example, it was the boots. His parents bought him some, “but they were rain boots.”
Daniel Bürgi also states the obvious: what he misses most currently is his own home, he who has found refuge with his friend for an indefinite period.
Bitter observation
When it comes time to do the accounts, he finally draws up this bitter observation: “My friends were not present the days following the fire. They were very good friends. I no longer consider them that way anymore. I don’t I don’t need these people anymore.” Unlike all those who offered their help, material or not. He warmly thanks them, the mayor and the firefighters.
The future? “Day to day.” The reconstruction of Daniel Bürgi’s life is like a long road which he knows he will never really see the end of. More than two months after that famous Thursday, he still struggles to pass by the scene of the tragedy. “Those black beams…I’ll feel better when it’s all cleared away.”
Swiss
