A car drives slowly along rue Jaubert, under the spring sun which beats down on the yellow facades. It runs along the small Marseille artery, arrives at the intersection of the rue de Tivoli, where diggers are busy again and again, tirelessly, on the last debris. The car continues its momentum, as if nothing had happened. It then passes under Paul’s eyes, walking. The old man freezes, and stares at this usually banal scene, which has become extraordinary this Friday morning. Paul has lived in this street, in the heart of the Camas district, for almost fifty years. “It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a car here,” he says.
It had been exactly nineteen days. On April 9, part of the Camas district was emptied of all forms of life. That day, the collapse of several buildings following an explosion killed eight Marseillais, and led to the emergency evacuation of 43 buildings. Paul is one of the rare neighbors to have been able to stay on the spot, living so far in a ghost district, where firefighters, experts, local elected officials and journalists had replaced the inhabitants of these usually peaceful streets.
“Part of the life of the neighborhood resumes”
Nineteen days later, the journalists are still there, the firefighters too, the local elected officials too. But something has changed. “Today, part of the life of the district is resuming”, welcomes Mayor Benoît Payan. In a press release sent Thursday evening, the city of Marseille announced the return of 72 households, or 138 people, to 19 buildings on rue Jaubert and rue Abbé-de-l’Epée, two streets perpendicular to rue de Tivoli, from this Friday at 9 a.m., the experts having ruled out any vital danger in these buildings.
The news spread like wildfire among the dislodged. A large suitcase in hand, Nicolas approaches Dylan, one of the firefighters dispatched to the scene. ” Good morning ! I live in this building, on the first floor. Dylan accompanies Nicolas to his apartment. “We are here to ensure their safety and also provide them with psychological support: people are now very apprehensive about gas”, explains the sailor-firefighter in the stairwell. Arrived on his steps, his suitcase in hand, Nicolas does not hide his impatience. The young man was in the middle of moving when the tragedy occurred. He stopped at all, in a hurry, and will finally be able to recover his last furniture. “The truck arrives around 10 a.m.,” he explains to the firefighter.
” It’s hard “
At the appointed time, a van parks on rue Jaubert, and overtakes Georges, who is leaving his apartment in a neighboring building. On the crane’s foot from 8.30 a.m. to be among the first to return to his cozy nest, Georges came out relieved, after having carefully inspected every nook and cranny, looking for any anomaly caused by the blast from the explosion. “Everything is good, blows the old man who has lived in the neighborhood for fifty years. There was even the Easter table still set, with cutlery and plates! »
A neighbor sees her in the distance, and falls into her arms, tears in her eyes. “Mister George! I had missed you. It’s one of those effects for me to come back…” “How are you?, answers the old man with a mischievous smile. It seems that you live in a beautiful apartment, a palace of 250 m²! “It’s hard,” she breathes. I think of my friends who left, and whom I knew well. »
A few meters away, in this calm and disconcerting ballet of suitcases and bags, another dislodged person puts the key in the lock of his building, under the eye of the cameras. “It’s a very strange feeling to be able to go home when there have been deaths 50 meters away, he confides, I will be able to resume my life as before. What do you want to do…” In the distance, Georges slowly resumes his habits, and goes shopping, on the Canebière. Like before. Or almost. In a corner of his head, he still thinks of that night. “The shock, the noise, the deaths. You know, these were people we saw every day, passing by my house. George whispers. “The main thing is that we are alive. »