Tenir sa place Enters La Réunion’s Legal Deposit Collection

Two copies of Tenir sa place – Bernard Acar, une vie de sapeur-pompier à La Réunion have been submitted to the Bibliothèque départementale de La Réunion, the departmental library responsible for legal deposit on the island.

One copy will be forwarded to the Bibliothèque nationale de France, France’s national library. The second copy, dedicated by Bernard Acar and Nicolas Folio, will remain in La Réunion, where it will be preserved as part of the departmental library’s heritage collections.

This deposit marks an important milestone in the life of the book. It is not merely an administrative requirement. It ensures that Bernard Acar’s life and career are permanently recorded within La Réunion’s written memory.

Through one individual journey, the book brings into focus an entire generation of firefighters: men shaped by demanding standards, deeply attached to their fire station, their crew and their territory, and committed to a culture of service grounded in discipline, loyalty and transmission.

The handwritten dedication on the copy preserved in La Réunion reflects the meaning of this gesture: to keep a record of a life devoted to service, to contribute to the memory of the island’s firefighters, and to pass this history on to future generations.

Through this legal deposit, Tenir sa place officially becomes part of La Réunion’s written heritage. This step is fully aligned with the mission of the Association of Friends of the Museum of Firefighters of La Réunion and the Indian Ocean: to preserve, document and share the human, material and intangible heritage of emergency services in our territory.