Like the Paw Patrol, they intervene immediately as soon as danger threatens. “Environmental firefighters”, the Séché Urgences Interventions teams have been on a mission for ten years to protect the planet from the risks of pollution. Three weeks ago, they were the ones who were at work taking samples and collecting waste after the fire in two disused buildings riddled with asbestos in Rouen. Four years earlier, they were already on deck in this same city for the Lubrizol disaster, this time responsible for recovering the drums of chemicals damaged in the factory fire and cleaning the Seine which had been polluted by hydrocarbons.
In 2019, they also intervened to avoid the oil spill which threatened the French coasts after the sinking of the Great America as well as on the emblematic Notre-Dame construction site. “After the fire in the cathedral, we decontaminated the crypt as well as schools on the Île de la Cité which were polluted with lead,” says Xavier Battais, chemical engineer at Séché Urgences Interventions.
Dirty rivers or old polluted industrial sites
A subsidiary of the Séché Environnement group, specializing in waste management, the company has been involved in disasters of all kinds since 2014 with around a hundred operations per year on average. “Some only take a few hours, like cleaning a river after an accident,” says Mickael Prestavoine, director of operations. But other, more complex projects can last several months, such as the decontamination of old industrial sites. »
To carry out its missions, the company relies on around thirty experts but also on 230 reserve technicians and chemists who can be mobilized in each disaster. Established on eight sites in France, it has its headquarters in La Guerche-de-Bretagne, about half an hour southeast of Rennes. An operations management platform which has just quintupled its surface area (4,000 m² of buildings compared to 800 previously), thus becoming “the largest site in France dedicated to environmental emergencies. »
“We are in contact with very dangerous products”
In the large hangar which serves as a garage, the fleet of machines is quite impressive with trucks, boats and quads ready to intervene. “It’s like in a fire station, we are ready to leave at the slightest emergency,” emphasizes Xavier Battais. The walk through the bays also gives the impression of believing in a post-apocalyptic world with a whole bunch of slightly creepy equipment such as nuclear protection suits or portable decontamination showers. “We are in contact with very dangerous products like hydrofluoric acid which attacks the skin so it is better to be well protected,” smiles Xavier Battais.
Complex and presenting chemical, biological, pyrotechnic or radiological risks, the interventions also require cutting-edge equipment such as these drones or underwater robots that every fire station would dream of having. Firefighters that the Séché Urgences Interventions teams regularly encounter in the areas of operation. “But we do not replace the firefighters, we always intervene after them to manage the post-fire, for example,” indicates Xavier Battais, passionate about the diversity of missions. Sometimes it means sacrificing a few nights. “For the fire in the buildings in Rouen, I was warned at 1:30 a.m. on Sunday evening,” he says. But as with the gang of Chase, Ruben and others, duty does not wait.