Security exercise one month before the opening of the Armada de Rouen, the big gathering of old rigs

2023-05-04 10:41:18

It’s party time in Rouen and all along the Seine. For the past few days, the largest sailboats in the world have returned for the Armada de la Liberté, the always fascinating meeting place for old rigs. Millions of people flock to the docks and board ships. A short distance away, however, the party turned tragic: at the height of the town of Duclair, a harbor launch collided with the Lutèce, a pleasure boat. Several passengers were injured and some fell into the water during the impact. The ship had to anchor to avoid a drift, the rescue services came on board to assist the victims and begin to transship the passengers before considering a towing solution.

This perfectly fictitious scenario was the one written for the Exercise Numerous Victims (NOVI) which took place this Wednesday, May 3 near the hold of the ferry in Duclair (near Rouen) in anticipation of the Armada – the real one – which will be held from June 8 to 18 in Rouen. In the meantime, this Wednesday, at 2 p.m., there were more than 150 to meet on the quay, firefighters, gendarmes, nurses and doctors from the Samu, volunteers from the SNSM, the National Society for Rescue at Sea But also “plastrons”, in other words volunteers playing the role of victims. The latter – mainly agents of the departmental council of Seine-Maritime, had been made up for the occasion in order to make the exercise as real as possible.

The Armada, the real one, will take place from June 8 to 18

“The goal is to concretely prepare for a very low, but not zero risk of an accident between two boats. We are going to simulate the presence of victims inside. Rescuers and divers will intervene, with the support of drones and a helicopter, ”detailed on the quay the sub-prefect Clément Vivès, chief of staff to the prefect of Seine-Maritime. Even the ferry through which more than 1,000 vehicles pass daily was put to use when the inflatable boats of the SDIS76 and SNSM firefighters went back and forth to drop off the injured or passengers who had fallen into the water and immediately transported them to the tents to receive first aid and then to be transferred to nearby hospitals.

“The scenario was unveiled at the last moment and riddled with incidents and problems to force the actors to imagine the means to intervene nearby and to ask themselves questions as if it were very real”, explained the sub-prefect. . On the water, observers scrutinized the smallest gestures and interventions, “specialists who will identify room for improvement to improve actions”. “There will be a debriefing and a few other exercises in order to be ready for the Armada where several hundred people will be engaged,” said Clément Vivès. We have been working on it for a year and a half with the State services, the organizing association, the partners and the communities. »