Annual Donation to the Fire Brigade

Every year in early December the fire brigade (Fr. pompiers) come calling. They are collecting door to door for their charitable funds by 'selling' calendars. Households contribute as much or as little as they wish. The money goes to fund the firefighters activities, both professional training and social events (team building). Some of the money will also be channelled towards the fund to support the families of firefighters who lost their lives in the course of duty.

 

'Our' firefighters with this year's calendar.

All our firefighters in Preuilly are volunteers. Because we had cause to call them out earlier this year when we had a chimney fire, we gave more generously than usual, to express our gratitude.

The firefighters work in uniformed pairs to conduct their collections, for both physical protection and to prevent fraud. I've no doubt this practice will be reinforced next year after an incident last week in the small rural town of Sainte Maure de Touraine. A firefighter, inexplicably and unusually working on his own, was attacked by two assailants, who beat him and stole his satchel. 

The patron saint of firefighters is Saint Barbara of Heliopolis (Fr. Sainte Barbe) and her feast day is 4 December. French firefighters throughout the nation gather on or about this date for their big end of year party and awards ceremonies. Here in Indre et Loire there are 2559 professionals, volunteers, administrators and technical staff attached to the county fire brigade. This year they've made 32 157 interventions, covering fires, road accidents and emergency rescues to save human life. They have also responded to emergencies outside of the département, offering their services in New Caledonia, Mayotte, the Pyrénées-Orientales and our neighbouring département of Vienne. As well, they have gone to Libya and Colombia to provide training. At home they have improved their service by modernising vehicles and adopting a video detection system for forest fires. Volunteers have been encouraged and there are now 592 young firefighters (Fr. jeune pompiers, a sort of cadet scheme for teenage volunteers).