One of the first firefighters to treat Diana, Princess of Wales, following her deadly car accident in Paris says he had no idea who she was when he went to save her, held her hand, and attempted to calm her down.On August 31, 1997, firefighter Xavier Gourmelon arrived at a car accident in a Paris tunnel with no idea who he would be treating. According to The Mirror, it was Princess Diana, who had her eyes open and appeared to be conscious. He gave her oxygen and held her hand before getting her out of the car to keep her calm. “My God, what’s happened?” she exclaimed.

He didn’t expect anything serious because there was no blood and only a minor shoulder injury, but she later went into cardiac arrest.Xavier is now revealing his version of what happened that night with The Sun, nearly two decades later. “This is my first interview with the media.” Because you are a member of the French military, you are not permitted to speak. I believed it was okay now that I had quit the fire department.” He then goes into great detail about what transpired that night. As a duty officer, he worked at the Malar fire station near the Pont de l’Alma tunnel.

“We were very close, and it took us less than three minutes to get there.” My ten-man squad was in two vehicles and arrived first.””The car was a wreck, and we just dealt with it like any other traffic accident.” We got right to work determining who required assistance and who was still alive. The woman, eventually identified as Princess Diana, was lying on the floor at the back. I could tell she was alive because she was moving very slightly. I could see she had a little injury to her right shoulder, but nothing else was wrong with her. She was completely bloodless.

I held her hand and advised her to stay calm and still, and I assured her that I was there to help. ‘My God, what’s happened?’ she exclaimed. I gave her some oxygen and stood by her side as she was led out of the car. We were able to finish quickly since we didn’t have to cut any of the wreckage.”Xavier is presently in charge of emergency services at Brest Airport. “I massaged her heart, and she started breathing again a few seconds later,” he explained. Of course, it was a relief because, as a first responder, you want to save lives – and that’s what I thought I’d done.

To be honest, I assumed she would survive. As far as I knew, she was alive while she was in the ambulance, and I expected her to survive. But I later learned that she had died in the hospital. It was quite upsetting.”Princess Diana was the mother of two children. She was killed in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel catastrophe, along with the driver, Henri Paul, and her reported lover, Dodi Al-Fayed. Trevor Rees-Jones, a bodyguard for the Fayed family, is the lone survivor of the crash. He has no recollection of what happened before the automobile hit the 13th pillar in the tunnel.”

Mr. Fayed was in the back and in bad shape; he had a cardiac arrest in the car and was declared dead by a paramedic when he was taken out.” The front-row bodyguard was conscious, but he was imprisoned and had terrible facial injuries. ‘Where is she?’ he continued demanding of the princess. “Where has she gone?” But my staff advised him to remain silent and cool.

I told him that none of my men spoke English, so he should stay still and not move. I assured him that we would take care of everything.”The princess died as a result of internal injuries and a broken blood vessel near her heart, which caused internal hemorrhage, according to sources. “I can still picture the entire scene,” Xavier added. It’s something I’ll never forget and something I think about every year at this time.”