Gaillac. Jawad opens new garage two years after fire

The three children of Jawad and Dounia Malek are frolicking while kicking a ball. It's a day of celebration for the inauguration of the garage. with ribbon cutting and buffet. As for speeches, the shortest and simplest words will suffice, with a slight mist in the eyes. “Thank you everyone, thank you very much, really.” All of them are the former customers who are happy to have him back, but also Jean-Michel Camps, president of the Chamber of Trades and Crafts, who released an aid fund just after the disaster, and Francis Ruffel , deputy mayor, who “pushed” several people to advance the assistance file through the Agglo's pipelines (€10,000).

A blade of fire for 800 meters

On August 22, 2022, the two eldest huddled against their father to observe the charred rubble, the gutted roof, the blackened sections of walls. There was nothing left of the garage. Even the keys in their box were warped, all the equipment, large or small, had melted, destined for breakage. Jawad Malek moved in as a tenant in 2016 in this barely visible wooden building in the Roumagnac area. But within a few years, he had built up a clientele. Mechanics was his childhood passion. When he was very young, in Marrakech, he followed his father, a mechanic, and tried his hand at dismantling. He first worked six years in Madrid at Volkswagen, then a year in Germany at Mercedes and Porsche where he became familiar with current technologies. In Gaillac, he started as a self-employed person and then launched himself. But the fire, which started from the Montauban road and carried 800 meters by a violent wind, had ruined everything.

Head in the bucket

Jawad spent several weeks with his head in the bucket, but the energy is the strongest. “We were a family of ten children, five brothers and five sisters. Everyone worked. I never had a day of unemployment.”

Customers validate. “You can call him at any time, he comes. When he pretends to be troubleshooting 7/7, it’s reality.”

Today, Jawad has a modern, functional and well-insulated garage, the latest generation tools to handle all brands, two decks, a mezzanine storage space, a small office and a toilet block accessible to the disabled. “He had energy and patience. He worked on it, his wife also in the decoration. It's fabulous to see him relaunching this” Francis Ruffel's words, everyone could echo them. We find a couple who comforted him on August 22, 2022. He promised him “If you do it again, we will come to your house. When we have a good mechanic like you, serious and honest, we keep him.” Two years later, the promise is kept, the couple is here.