When the sirens of an ambulance sound, one expects to find inside doctors or firefighters, but much less pensioners and young students. However, 8,500 people in France are volunteer first aiders with the Red Cross, trained for at least 70 hours. Their mission: to help the Samu and the firefighters rescue people in danger.
Every evening, from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m., and every weekend from 8 a.m. to midnight, five Red Cross trucks crisscross the Hauts-de-Seine department. At the Samu reception and regulation center at Garches hospital, other volunteers, in contact with the Samu, inform them of upcoming interventions.
On the occasion of the national collection days of the Red Cross, from June 3 to 11, we spent an evening immersed with a team of volunteer first aiders, in Hauts-de-Seine.
This immersive report with Red Cross rescuers can be found at the top of the article.