French fire station burns down, no injuries reported

What do you do if your house catches fire? Why, you phone the fire brigade. And what do you do if your fire station is burning down? Well, you have no option but to phone another fire station. That’s what just happened in Cheniménil, France.

Cheniménil is a small town, tucked away in a valley in the rolling hills of the Vosges department of North-Eastern France. The town is, or rather it was, proud of its local fire station, which was built to protect its 1,200 inhabitants. But the fire station is no more, having fallen victim to a raging fire that broke out on Saturday night and burned it down, destroying the fire brigade’s utility truck, ambulance and fire engine at the same time. Nobody was injured in the fire, which also damaged an apartment block situated next to it. One of the inhabitants, Aurélie Daniel, had to evacuate her apartment with her two children and their dogs. She will be staying with neighbours until she is rehoused. The local paper, Vosges Matin, describes how roaring flames destroyed the roof of the fire engine hangar and badly damaged the offices. It appears that none of the 30 firemen based at the station were present when the fire began and that by the time they arrived at the scene from their homes it was too late to do anything else but call for help from two neighboring fire stations, those at Epinal and Lépanges, and watch helplessly as the flames engulfed their station. The other brigades arrived as quickly as they could, but all they could do was douse down the flames, which had already done their sinister work. Sunday morning revealed a desolate scene. Water everywhere from burst mains, charred vehicles, and blackened buildings were all that was left of the station. Firemen were still at the scene in case a secondary fire broke out and a criminal forensics expert was sifting through the debris to try and find out what caused the blaze. The cost of rebuilding the station is estimated to be €600,000 and the value of the vehicles lost in the inferno is €400,000. That comes to exactly €1 million ($1.4 million.) And that means that, like the original colour of their now charred and blackened fire-fighting machines, it would be safe to assume that the fire station of Cheniménil now has a bank account in flaming red and that some of the Cheniménil firemen have very red faces too.