Fire in Talence near Bordeaux, in 1971: “The workers had just left”

IN THE ARCHIVES – On July 21, 1971, in the early evening, 20 workers had just left the stitching workshop of the Berteil shoe factory, on rue du Colonel-Moli, in Talence, when suddenly flames burst forth… And, despite the rapid intervention of the firefighters, the factory suffered considerable damage. Story with the article published at the time

6:30 p.m. last night. Rue du Colonel-Moli in Talence suddenly became a fire hose and firefighters' home, as a pungent smell of burning spread. A fire had broken out shortly before in the workshops of Berteil et Cie, a company that makes children's shoes.

Three men, a cutter, the foreman, and the accountant, were still working when the oil boiler caught fire. And, while the boxes were being moved, the few materials spared by the fire, Mr. Michel Guzman, the cutter, recounts: "All of a sudden, the power went out. With the foreman, I went up to the first floor and, at the same time, the accountant raised the alarm. Within fifteen minutes, the workshop where the boot stitching is done had burned down. Within five minutes, the firefighters had extinguished the still-smoking rubble."

The foreman, Mr. Antonio Garcia, explains: "We immediately called the fire department. But here (an office on the first floor), it quickly became unbreathable. There was smoke everywhere."

Where the sewing workshop and an office once stood, not a single machine remains; the roof is damaged and the floor is torn. Water is dripping from the roof, but that's nothing when you consider that half an hour before the disaster, twenty workers were calmly and busy going about their day's final tasks.

"It could have been very serious. But luckily I was the only one working overtime." Mr. Michel Guzman's testimony echoes that of Mr. Antonio Garcia: "Yes, shortly before, there were people there..."

A large hose and six small ones were deployed by the firefighters, commanded by Lieutenant Champagne. They were placed in the factory, more accustomed to a setting of rolls of felt, piles of fine leather, and delicate materials. Fortunately, the storeroom itself was not affected, and the cutting workshop barely. Only the stitching workshop... But there, the fire didn't hold back.