This Friday, August 15 in the evening, Midi Libre was able to go to the advanced medical post and follow an intervention by firefighters during the third evening of the Feria de Béziers.
Few people know it, but the largest fire station in France is that of … Béziers. Nine rescue and assistance vehicles for victims (VSAV), 106 men in uniforms from all over Hérault, around twenty beds to accommodate patients, not counting 25 other firefighters in the city’s barracks … The advanced medical post (PMA) of Feria, located at Paul-Riquet college, Place de Gaulle, is then the most endowed in the country.
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“We are structured to manage a massive influx of victims, like an attack. If it happens, we must be able to take care of themexplains, in the middle of the evening, commander Sébastien Viginesoule, the head of the rescue center of Béziers. It also allows us not to overload hospital services. “
For this, a real country hospital has mounted each feria. This year, inside the playground. There is the “tent of blue waves” in order to accommodate those who drank too much, then medical boxes for relative and absolute emergencies. “We are there from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m., with the biggest of our activity that happens around midnight,” explains the commander Vinessoule.
A path to make yourself in the crowd
Around 10 p.m. this Friday, the camp beds are – fortunately – empty. An ambulance is still called to go into intervention. But the mission of the crew and captain Sami El Idrissi, who follows them aboard an imposing 4×4, begins well before arriving on the spot.
First you have to make your way through the city center where hundreds of thousands of people have already (well) started to party. Proof of this is, this beautiful “ola” produced by the Festaïres of the aisles, at the time of the passage of the red vehicles.
Flanders are not the most annoying on August 15, but rather the concrete studs placed here and there for the safety of the feria. Or the streets made even narrower by cars parked on the edges. “Fortunately we have a Béziers ambulance leader in each vehicle”blows Captain El Idrissi, who fights with the unrealized direction of his old but practical 4×4.
“We do a crazy job”
After a detour by an erroneous address, this is the firefighter crew arrived for the right apartment. Inside, a 74 -year -old lady fell heavily on the stairs and her friend is crying, seeing the scene.“Don’t worry Sir, she’s in our hands now”reassures one of the firefighters.
In just a few minutes, the lady is evacuated using an inflatable mattress. Before being brought to the PMA to assess his injuries. Starting from Captain Sami El Idrissi, with an overflowing passion: “We do a crazy job”. Not false.
