“Did you also dislodge? At the Last Metro, one of the essential cafés in the Camas district of Marseille, this is often the first question. In the agonizing expectation of the discovery of all the victims, everyone takes care to hear from each other. Jean-Marc and Katia, both retired, reassure their interlocutor. They are still not part of the security perimeter, which was expanded on Monday and now has 43 buildings, or 206 people displaced. But they are “shocked” and tell again and again about the broken window of their room at the time of the explosion, and the view of the rescue operations and the hollow tooth. “It’s terrible to imagine that we can find ourselves without anything overnight, and even those who have nothing are still there,” they breathe.
Gradually, orange safety helmets on their heads, displaced persons were authorized on Monday afternoon to come and pick up belongings. “There was a policeman and a firefighter with me, they asked me to check if there were no new cracks inside my apartment, and they let me in,” says Grégoire. He lives in a street perpendicular to the rue de Tivoli. Evacuating on Sunday morning, he had barely had five minutes to gather some things. His computer, toothpaste, whatever came to hand. There, the firefighter advised him to think about identity papers, possible medication. “You feel silly not knowing what to take. Yet with Noailles, we all wondered what you would take if you had to leave home. He has since been staying with a friend in the neighborhood, one of the many people who have offered to help him.
“People reacted from all over Marseille”
At the Saint-Savournin kindergarten, open from the dramatic night for the organization of relief, residents come spontaneously to show their solidarity. Furtively silhouetted, a young woman drops off a bag full of belongings. Then leaves without saying a word. Like others before her. The school is due to reopen on Tuesday, and a listening cell is provided for children and staff. Franklin Roosevelt Elementary School, which hosts a command center, remains requisitioned for the moment. There too, solidarity was very quickly organized for the two families of the school whose building, at 15 rue de Tivoli, was destroyed, but also those of the surrounding buildings which had to be evacuated.
“People immediately reacted to our call for solidarity, from the neighborhood and beyond, from all over Marseille”, relates Isabelle, member of the parents’ association. The link was made during the day with the sector town hall to establish an official collection point on Tuesday. Residents can now drop off their donations of children’s and adult clothing as well as hygiene kits for young and old. For her part, Aïda takes care of the firefighters who are fighting a fierce battle to search for the victims. She regularly brings them coffee and cakes prepared by a friend. And his humor to lighten hearts. An emergency nurse at La Timone, she often rubs shoulders with them when they bring in the wounded. She came this time as a neighbor. “You have to be present, I try to get them out of all this hassle. »
“You can’t tell yourself that it’s going to last a week”
At the end of the day, the collective of November 5, born of the collapses of the rue d’Aubagne, had fixed an appointment with the dislodged at the Last metro. For a moment of exchanges, as the questions are numerous on the continuation. “Initiatives have been created, fundraising, apartment sharing, we can pass on our expertise on the whole issue of rehousing”, says Kevin Vacher, member of the collective. He also wants to prepare for the wait while the inhabitants who are in the security perimeter, but far from the danger of the buildings adjacent to n° 17 and n° 15 rue de Tivoli falling, hope to return to their homes in the next days. “Any building that’s a bit old with a micro-crack, even outside the danger sector, can become dangerous by domino effect,” he recalls. Don’t tell yourself it’s going to last a week. »
The expertise on the structure of the buildings began on Monday. In the morning, the deputy mayor Yannick Ohanessian, without giving this precise timetable, hoped that the return of the first dislodged to their homes would be done “within a few days”. “There will be buildings that are a little more impacted, where there will be real renovation work that will be necessary, he explains. And then there will be some housing that has been completely or partially destroyed, and that will be another story. »