The daily lives of firefighters are becoming increasingly violent, with an average of 74 assaults per month in 2017. To better protect them against verbal abuse and physical attacks, MPs are proposing to allow witnesses to an assault on a firefighter to give evidence anonymously.
Insults, threats, physical violence… Over the past 10 years, violence against firefighters has risen by 213 per cent, according to the National Observatory on Crime and Criminal Justice Responses.
74 assaults per month
During an emergency call-out, Anthony Boudaud, a firefighter for 20 years, was nearly stabbed by a former soldier armed with a knife.
"He was coming towards me and said, ‘Get out of my house or I’ll kill you’. At a moment like that, you think to yourself: ‘I’ve come to help a bloke and I might end up leaving in a coffin’. It’s awful to think that,” he explained to BFMTV.
The events took place more than four years ago, but for this firefighter from Lyon, the memory is still vivid. And his is not an isolated case. In 2017, the National Federation of Fire Brigades of France (FNSPF) recorded an average of 74 attacks on firefighters per month, and 2,813 incidents reported over the course of the year, amounting to a 23 per cent increase compared with 2016.
Assaults do not necessarily increase in sensitive urban neighbourhoods. “We come into contact with all sections of the public; in other words, there are no lawless areas – we respond to calls everywhere,” explains Jérôme François, general secretary of the UNSA firefighters’ union. “Sometimes, because of alcohol or drugs, some people think we’ve taken too long to arrive or that we’re not doing things the right way. And they end up getting physical with us.”
Strengthen the law to protect them better
Calls received by firefighters to put out fires are in the minority compared with call-outs to rescue people. It is during these operations that verbal or physical assaults are most frequent, sometimes with tragic consequences. Last September, for the first time in nearly 10 years in France, A 27-year-old firefighter was fatally stabbed by the person he had come to rescue, in Villeneuve-Saint-Georges.
Whether due to a lack of time or fear of reprisals, many firefighters are reluctant to report an assault. To better protect them, on Thursday 7 March the Senate passed a bill which “allows witnesses to attacks on firefighters to give evidence anonymously, thereby preventing any potential reprisals”, explains Patrick Kanner, chair of the Socialist and Republican Group in the Senate, who co-chairs the Senate fact-finding mission on their safety.
Other measures have been proposed, such as making body-worn cameras standard equipment for firefighters on call-outs. The Senate has given itself six months to assess the needs and resources of each department and to provide the best possible support for future firefighters in an increasingly dangerous working environment.