STATES OF EMERGENCY - Patrick Lagadec

K. Robak: The Rheims affair 153know that crisis situations reveal individuals as they are deep inside. Thatsaid, we can perhaps identify some guidelines characterizing the situation inwhich victims have to fight. The point best illustrated by our case is thedifficulty of fighting almost everyone at once.Fighting on all frontsFirst, there's the shock of the accident. In our case, the sequence was thefollowing: a violent explosion that shook the building; a power outage thatplunged us into darkness (at 7.40 pm in January); thick smoke and soot thatinfiltrated everywhere (garbage chutes, air shafts, apartment doors openedbruskly). We were suffocating, so we took to the balconies, where some of ushad to wait one or two hours, in -20°C temperatures; a fire broke out in thebasement but was quickly brought under control; the firemen finally rescuedus and made us breathe some oxygen before taking us to the hospital for aroutine check-up. At the end of the evening, we came back home. Theapartments were completely covered in greasy soot. What a horrible sight!A first observation: the victim is strongly destabilized by this brutal loss ofhis or her habitat. You feel deeply depressed, you feel things are unjust. Allthe first reaction is to erase the traces of the aggression. Everyone is seizedby a frenzy of cleaning and putting in order. This is an animal reflex: youremake your nest. No time to ask yourself questions - you go to it with mopand bucket! And then there are exhausting steps to take: discussions with thetenants' association, with cleaning companies, with the insurance and theirexperts - not to mention the difficulties in camping out at home or livingwith friends.I also fell into this routine, but not totally, because my profession alertedme to the risks connected with electrical installations and had instilled in mean accident-investigation reflex. So I began to ask myself questions. Severalfacts alerted me: headaches, vomitting, bleeding and itchy hands; the sorrystate of houseplants; an electrician friend who said, "It smells like askarel inyour home"; a very recent article in the journal Face au Risque dealing withthe subject and detailing a previous, very serious accident; the worriedobservations of a family doctor called to the building. A call to an engineer atINRS, the national institute of security research, confirmed my worries. Awhole cluster of elements convinced me that the situation had to be examinedvery closely - something was up.I then did everything to make the other homeowners react, all busycleaning away - as if it was ordinary dirt: "Stop, or at least wear gloves!Don't walk barefoot! You can't just give your clothes to the dry cleaner likethat! We can't simply throw this dirty water into the sewer system!"My second observation: it isn't easy, in fact it's almost impossible, toconvince victims that they have to deal seriously with the situation.Everyone wants to be left alone to clean in peace. And if you insist, thereaction is of the type, "If there was a risk, the people in charge wouldsay so."