” Restricted zone “. Total immersion in the daily life of the Paris firefighters

To be able to film their interventions as close as possible to the flames, a journalist was trained by the firefighters from Paris. He then followed this elite brigade for a year. Manuel Laigre is not afraid of anything. This reporter from Restricted zone agreed to train with the Paris firefighters in order to be able to follow them and film their interventions as closely as possible.

“We very often talk about immersive documentaries, but the cameraman stops most of the time on the doorstep”, he explains. “However, the challenge for this film was to stick to reality, to follow the firefighters in all the circumstances of their missions. To succeed in this bet, I had to train myself and learn the basics of the trade. The Paris firefighters accepted this challenge so that I could familiarize myself with the flames, push my limits and shoot new images as close as possible to the firefighters ”.

A blaze of more than 1000 degrees

We thus discover the reporter at the beginning of the documentary with twelve apprentices at the end of the training entering an enclosed and burning place. The trainer warns him: the heat can rise up to 1000 degrees… So don’t panic because the slightest misstep can put his life in danger. Manuel Laigre, like his comrades, emerges upset by this exercise.

An exercise that will not be in vain because the journalist was then able to follow the soldiers of the fire when a fire broke out in a Parisian building of twelve floors. Toxic smoke in the stairwell, people stuck at home, blaze in the parking lot … Restricted zone This high-risk intervention, which lasted four hours, is transcribed as closely as possible. “During the fires, the shooting conditions were really not obvious. Sometimes extreme “, he continues. “The heat, the fumes, the equipment and the thousands of liters of water sent by the firefighters into sometimes cramped spaces, made the task delicate for me”.

Present during the attack in front of the premises of Charlie Hebdo

For a year, Manuel Laigre also followed the daily life of Maelle, a 35-year-old emergency doctor, one of the only three female doctors in the barracks. On call three times a week for 24 hours, she goes through high-risk interventions: cardiac arrest, stroke, road accident and even terrorist attack.

Maelle was, in fact, one of the first to intervene after the ax attack in front of the former Charlie Hebdo premises and the journalist was with her at that time. For 90 minutes, the report plunges us into the reality of the difficult profession of firefighter whose motto is ” Save or perish “. “The Paris firefighters gave me the opportunity to experience an exceptional year with them. The coolness and relentlessness of these committed men and women were a sacred lesson in life ”, concludes Manuel Laigre.

Restricted zone at 9:05 p.m., M6

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