Firefighters had the bad surprise to see that a truck had been stolen on the night of July 26 to 27. The latter was to be used to fight against forest fires, which represent a significant risk in the south of France. The Director of the Departmental Fire and Rescue Service (SDIS), Colonel Alain Guesdon explains that “a firefighter noticed around six o’clock in the morning that a window in the barracks was broken, that the garage doors were open and that the single tanker had disappeared”.
“Since then, we have warned our colleagues in a large quarter of south-eastern France and obviously the gendarmerie services which are very actively investigating,” added the boss of the Lozère firefighters. The vehicle was seen early in the morning in Mende, located about forty kilometers from Grandrieu, according to the SDIS manager.
“I don’t know what the thieves want to do with it, but it’s not our fellow neighbors who are going to buy a truck on the black market,” he quipped. The 14-ton tank truck, which bears the inscription “Sapeurs-Pompiers de la Lozère” on the sides, is in principle the only one of its type to be able to intervene on the front line in the event of a fire in around fifteen municipalities. of Grandrieu.
Thursday morning, “we brought in another truck as a replacement,” Guesdon said. The departmental director also points out that trucks from Lozère can be seen outside the department, especially during this period of very high fire risks in the south of France.
“Since we are not warned that it is stolen, it is surprising but not impossible to see a fire truck from Lozère in Hérault or elsewhere,” he explained. Any witnesses are invited to contact the police by dialing 17.
