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"I've never seen anything like it": Bordeaux University Hospital expands to receive fire evacuees

From Le Figaro · () French

Translated from French, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

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  • The Bordeaux University Hospital Center (CHU) is expanding its facilities to accommodate patients and residents evacuated from fire-affected nursing homes.
  • The hospital is experiencing an unprecedented influx of patients, comparable in scale to evacuations during World War II.
  • The director general described the situation as a "general mobilization" with a 24/7 crisis unit managing the exceptional circumstances.

The University Hospital Center of Bordeaux (CHU) is undertaking extraordinary measures, expanding facilities at its Pellegrin and Saint-André hospitals to receive patients and residents displaced by the raging wildfires. The scale of the crisis has prompted an "exceptional agility" from the institution.

Vincent-Nicolas Delpech, the CHU's director general, expressed the unprecedented nature of the situation. "Crises, in my professional life, I have known several. Terrorist attacks, Covid... But of such magnitude, I have never seen that!" he stated. The hospital is managing a 24/7 crisis unit to cope with the overwhelming number of "shipwrecked" individuals from the fires, responding to numerous emergency calls and finding places for evacuated patients and residents.

Crises, in my professional life, I have known several. Terrorist attacks, Covid... But of such magnitude, I have never seen that!

— Vincent-Nicolas DelpechThe director general of the CHU of Bordeaux described the unprecedented scale of the current crisis.

"Two hundred thousand people evacuated, I think that has not happened since the Second World War!" Delpech remarked, highlighting the immense scale of displacement. The hospital has already admitted nineteen residents from a medicalized home in Lège-Cap-Ferret, eighty patients from the private hospital Wallerstein in Arès, and over one hundred residents on Saturday, demonstrating a rapid and extensive response to the unfolding disaster.

Two hundred thousand people evacuated, I think that has not happened since the Second World War!

— Vincent-Nicolas DelpechThe director general of the CHU of Bordeaux emphasized the massive scale of the evacuations.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Le Figaro in French. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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