Future fire station in Caen: another location found by computer
By Christophe Jaquet
Published on
Will there be a new fire station a Caen (Calvados), next to the Zénith and the future Palais des Sports? The answer is no. Well almost. Several times reported, the project is not yet definitively buried in this place. But it’s just like.
This Tuesday, June 28, 2022, the board of directors of the Departmental Fire and Rescue Service of Calvados (SDIS14) had to ratify the rejection of its location at the foot of Boulevard Guillou. Three days later, Xavier Charles, the president of the SDIS, announces above all that another location, more satisfactory, has been found. Outside of Caen.
A plot of 7,000 m² has just been offered to us in the Koenig district, in Bretteville-sur-Odon. It is currently being appraised by the Sdis teams to determine its advantages and disadvantages. Depending on these results, we may decide to move the project for the 3rd rescue center of the Caen conurbation there, and therefore to abandon the barracks project next to the Zénith.
An “aberrant sizing” next to the Zenith
In discussion for several months, the abandonment is confirmed in the facts. Via an internal study carried out with software “acquired by Sdis at the beginning of the year”, specifies Xavier Charles. They made it possible to “computer model [sic] operation of a rescue center next to the Zénith”. For him, three points become this “uplifting” study:
- From the start of the project in 2015, the construction of a new emergency center was to “improve coverage of the Caen conurbation”, recalls Xavier Charles. In particular, “the southwestern part, from Verson to Evrecy. According to the software, “a rescue center deployed next to the Zénith does not improve response times in Evrecy. The objective would not be achieved”;
- a rescue center next to the Zénith would not improve “the coverage of downtown Caen”, considered “already satisfactory” with the barracks of Folie-Couvrechef to the north and Ifs to the south. “The time saved would only be 35 seconds”;
- above all, the location at the Zénith made the future barracks “the first emergency center in the agglomeration” with 6,000 planned interventions, against 5,000 for the other two. But its “aberrant sizing” according to Xavier Charles – barely 4,000 m² of surface area – could only achieve “half as much”, in addition “without the possibility of extension”.
Software points to Bretteville-sur-Odon
It is for this reason, and also because the project budget slipped from 2.6 M € to 3.3 M €, with the explosion in the cost of raw materials, that Sdis 14 “turned to the prefect and the agglomeration of Caen la mer so that they propose another site”, explains Xavier Charles, “according to the models made by the software”.
And as the algorithms are well done, they pointed to a perfect location, in Bretteville-sur-Odon. Where, coincidentally, a vast site has been converted by Caen la mer, since the departure, in June 2010, of the 18e Signal Regiment. Until now, this location was just a guess. Not even a plan B.
Caen la mer would only have offered it “the last week” according to Xavier Charles. This is why it “is expertized”. If the examination is “conclusive”, “the abandonment of the Zenith project” will be recorded. “The decision will be taken in July”, promises the president of Sdis 14.
“The duped Caennais” for the opposition
For the elected representatives of the minority on the departmental council, the vagueness maintained on this subject is “quite singular”. Éric Vève (PS) and Alexandra Beldjoudi (EELV), departmental councilors for the canton of Caen-5 affirm it, “the local right will have managed civil security with a lot of amateurism”.
According to them, “the people of Caen were duped in this affair”. Why ? “In 2015, when the decision was made to close the Canada barracks downtown, it was in return for opening a new barracks.” They insist: “There was no anticipation. Logic would have dictated that we open it before closing Canada. “And elsewhere than in one sector, the Zenith, “which we have been warning for years that its location was not good”.
Instead of the “local right”, the left at CD 14 would have “re-examine the possibility of reopening the barracks Canada” after the deconfinement. And she would have “probably chosen Bretteville-sur-Odon rather than the Zénith” for the news. Now, she regrets the time lost, the €180,000 already committed to studies for the location of the future barracks next to the Zénith, and above all “the great malaise” among the Caen firefighters, who to relaunch their social conflict with their management.
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