Ph_B (X) Jul 1, 2019:

Poor choice of words indeed "The buildings are actually in Paris" - my fireman friend has but a vague notion of what translators do and it was probably not immediately clear to him that translators don't translate texts written in their home country in their native language. I think the words Angleterre/anglaise triggered his answer.<p>More seriously, I agree that façade secourue is probably just a poor choice of words. I'd keep secourir for people and use verbs like sauver, préserver, protéger (du feu) for buildings.

B D Finch (asker) Jun 28, 2019:

@Ph_B Thanks for that! The buildings are actually in Paris and I think that British Fire Brigades also have the policy that they "sort les gens d'abord"! However, this was about linguistics and updating an access path, rather than an actual operation, which might never be necessary. The expression " façade secourue" was probably just a poor choice of words that one shouldn't read a lot into.

I was quite amused a few weeks ago to see our local (French) fire service extracting smoke after a basement fire, while simultaneously conducting a PR operation by letting the local kids climb all over the fire engine and sit in the driver's seat.

Regarding the safety of buildings, I don't know whether there's much to choose between the two countries.

Ph_B (X) Jun 28, 2019:

En Angleterre, c'est des Anglais, alors, hein ? Just back from the local sous-préfecture - organic market day today. Firemen were there for safety advice (heatwave, the beach, at home, etc.) and one of them being from my village, I thought I'd mention my English colleague wondering about façade secourue. His answer: Ben ch'ais pas comment i'font en Angleterre. C'est des Anglais, alors, hein ? Nous, on t'sort les gens d'abord, et après on s'occupe du touê. I tought I'd add this to the discussion in the hope B D might find it useful. - Oops, just realised I wrote that B D Finch is English. No offence meant and apologies if that isn't the case. Still, such priceless information from the horse's mouth was worth it.

B D Finch (asker) Jun 28, 2019:

Thanks Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this. I shall now close it as all I really wanted was confirmation that the term covers more than rescuing people.

@Daryo, according to my text, compliance with regulations doesn't require the fire access path to go all the way around the building. Back in the 1990s, I had to liaise with the London Fire Brigade to redesign access to some blocks of Council flats, and they certainly didn't then require the fire access path to go right round the buildings.

Daryo Jun 27, 2019:

ANY part of the building might need "rescuing" even if there are no people in danger, the building itself might need "rescuing" from say fire.

Also you can't really separate the "rescuing" of people and of the building they are in. If you let the fire spread, or the building crumble from the pressure of some landslide / mudslide / flood ... you won't have much people left to rescue.

BTW pathways for emergency vehicles normally (/ if no one is cutting corners) go all the way around the building - no matter if some parts are solid walls with no openings at all.

Ph_B (X) Jun 27, 2019:

Both? To answer your question, I understand façade secourue as "first rescuing the people that are there, then saving the wall itself (or trying to)", although as you say, it probably doesn't make any difference in terms of translation: façade is what you need to translate.

Tony M Jun 27, 2019:

@ BDF It simply means "the side of the building to which the emergency services need to have (vehicular) access" — e.g. for example not on the blank wall side of a building.