Firegeezer notes: The following article was submitted by long-time reader and blogging colleague from the south of France, Laurence Delorme. She publishes a blog for French firefighters, ChezFireball, and has contributed here before, more recently an interview with a fire engineer, Franck Gaviot-Blanc (see Firegeezer HERE). We thank Laurence for this interesting cultural comparison.
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EACH YEAR IN DECEMBER IN FRANCE, Firefighters celebrate their patron saint, Saint Barbara.
The 20-year medal
The martyr is also the patron saint for military people. Like in the USA where you honor Saint Florian, Ste. Barbara protects the firefighters and her feast day is on December 4. The day is celebrated with ceremonies in important cities like Paris, Lyon and Marseille, as firefighters recieve medals and speeches are delivered to thank them. Usually many important people such as mayors and fire officers thank the firefighters for their courage and devotion. They will also go to cemeteries to pray for the fallen soldiers. After the ceremony, there is a banquet held for the families.
In smaller cities and villages, Saint Barbara is celebrated on a convenient day in early December with similar programs of speeches and medal presentations. It is a special day for the local firefighters and their families, along with the citizens of the town. This year in my home town of Vaugneray, the program was held on Saturday, December 12 in the city auditorium where the mayor spoke to the families and medals were presented to all those who had reached 20 years of service in the fire department.
Vaugneray has 42 firefighters. In France, only the large cities have paid fire departments and none of the towns have what Americans call volunteer departments. They are called “volunteer” in France, but are actually what you refer to as paid-on-call firefighters.
The local fire chief in the towns is titled Capitaine and our chief is a young man for the position. He is only 37 yrs. old, but began as a firefighter when he was age 16, riding his bicycle to the station to respond on fire calls.
This picture above shows three very close friends who received their 20-yr. medals on Saturday. Left, Capitaine Lucien Greppo; center, Bruno Delbarre; and right, Stephane Laurent. FF Laurent in my Step-dad and we were all very proud of him on that day.
With this article, I would like to salute and thank all of the French firefighters who take care of us everyday. May God bless them.
Service Departemental Incendie Secours
(“Fire Department” in English)
Also on FireGeezer…
- French FF’s Protest Degradation – November 20, 2011
