Like a ball of fire on the ground floor of the Grand-parc health center in Hérouville-Saint-Clair near Caen. Thursday, November 12, early in the night, a car intentionally crashed into the building. The occupants then set it on fire. No casualties but the disaster devastated the premises despite the rapid intervention of the firefighters. “I arrived in the morning, I saw the car in front of the health center,” says a person familiar with the place, frightened, warned of the serial cancellations of appointments.
The building has since been protected by a temporary fence. The ground floor housed several specialists: cardiologist, physiotherapists, hearing aid specialist and even podiatrists. “To say that it’s already not easy to have an appointment with a specialist…”, grumble the regulars when faced with the extent of the damage. The restoration will take “at least six months”, estimates Rodolphe Thomas, the mayor of the city. There is still a slight improvement on the upper level of the building: the general practitioners' switchboard should be able to work again next week. Three physiotherapists are rehoused by the city while awaiting solutions for other professionals.
“At first glance, there was no theft,” noted an employee. Why then target a health center with “thug methods”, as they are called in Hérouville? “It’s incomprehension and anger. We are faced with criminal delinquency which feels all-powerful because it feels that it can act with impunity,” says the mayor, in a serious tone. The car thrown against the pole then burned would have been stolen in the Paris region. The councilor speaks of “people passing through” the city. The motive of the perpetrators remains enigmatic. “In this sector, we had recently observed groupings of people which had been reported. But we can’t monitor at all hours,” admits Rodolphe Thomas.
The Grand-parc district is a rather quiet area of Hérouville-Saint-Clair. Scene, however, of an anti-drug raid in February 2020 (nine arrests). It is impossible, at this stage, to link the car ramming attack to this type of traffic. The mayor mentions “a collateral effect of this situation with groupings around the Health Center”. And drives the point home with a more political message: “In Hérouville-Saint-Clair, we fight against delinquency and trafficking. We are doing prevention but Justice is not up to the task. This is why crime feels all-powerful.” The residents encountered by the disaster share this astonishment. The answers to their questions are suspended from the current investigation, pending the resumption of activity of some 20 health professionals in the center.
