The firefighters deplore an increase in acts of violence against them in recent months. Some have developed a form of discomfort and are thinking about leaving the profession.
“We represent the state so we are targeted mainly for that.” In the North as in other departments, firefighters feel more and more often the victims of attacks. Since the beginning of the year, 92 assaults have been recorded in the department. A meeting is scheduled for Thursday in Lille to discuss this situation.
In the field, some of these firefighters have developed a form of fed up. This is the case of this firefighter who testifies anonymously at the microphone of BFM Grand Lille. On March 17, he and his colleagues were targeted in intervention in front of the town hall of Roubaix. Headbuttings, punches … a crowd forms around them. Insult them.
“That day, we were in an ambulance. There were only three of us. Around us, there were about fifteen people, plus the person we controlled on the ground,” he testifies.
“They confuse us with the police”
The police, “mobilized on another intervention”, could not intervene, adds one of his colleagues. “There is nothing that exists for us. Every time, it’s the firefighters that we send to the front line. It’s like that all the time.”
At such times, “the minutes seem long to us. We imagine a lot of things,” continues the first firefighter. “There are consequences behind on privacy, on sleep. We ask ourselves a lot of questions. Do I get back in the ambulance tomorrow? Am I going to be safe? still happen to me? “, he laments. “There is a malaise. We are not here for that”, summarizes one of these firefighters.
How to explain these attacks? “They unfortunately confuse us with the police”, also targeted by attacks in recent weeks, underlines the firefighter. There is this amalgamation of outfit. “
For some, the pride in wearing the uniform has gradually given way to moral and physical wear and tear. All in a context of health crisis and lack of staff. In Roubaix, 15 firefighters from the rescue center asked to leave the barracks.
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