Xavier Gourmelon opened up about the Princess of Wales’ harrowing final moments
The firefighter who listened to Princess Diana’s final words shared that he will always remember that tragic night.
Xavier Gourmelon, who is 58 years old, was one of the first responders who hurried to the terrible accident in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris back in 1997.
Here’s what he had to say about it:
It’s been nearly 30 years since the tragic car accident that happened in the early morning of August 31, 1997, which shocked both the Royal Family and people all around the globe.
Diana, who was only 36 years old, was in Paris visiting Dodi Fayed, an Egyptian film producer and the son of Mohamed Al-Fayed, who owns Harrods.
They were riding in a black 1994 armored Mercedes-Benz S 280, driven by Henri Paul, who was the deputy head of security at the Hôtel Ritz Paris, where they were staying.
To escape the paparazzi, they tried to use a decoy car to leave first and took the back exit of the hotel.
Trevor Rees-Jones, a member of the Fayed family’s security team, was sitting in the front passenger seat, while Diana and Dodi were in the back.
None of them were wearing seatbelts.
As they drove through the Place de l’Alma tunnel, eyewitnesses reported that their car was surrounded by paparazzi.
Princess Diana died in the deadly incident in Paris on 31 August, 1997 (Diana Archive/Getty Images)
Paul reportedly lost control of the Mercedes as he was entering the tunnel, crashing into another car before hitting a pillar that held up the tunnel’s roof.
The car then spun around, collided with the stone wall of the tunnel, and finally came to a stop, leaving the people inside either dead or badly hurt.
Dodi and Paul were declared dead at the scene, while emergency responders hurried to save the Princess of Wales from the wreckage.
Firefighter Xavier Gourmelon was there and heard Diana’s last words, even though he didn’t recognize her at that moment.
On the 20th anniversary of her passing, the French firefighter talked to Good Morning Britain about what she said, mentioning that his team didn’t know a royal was in the car.
He shared that when he first got to her, Diana was unconscious, but then she suddenly woke up.
Gourmelon remembered, “She looked at me and said, ‘Oh my God, what’s happened?’”
He noted that the Princess seemed really upset, so he tried to calm her down, but she lost consciousness again shortly after.
Diana and Dodi are partially visible behind Rees-Jones and Paul in an image taken shortly before the crash (Jacques Langevin/scottbaker-inquests.gov.uk via Getty Images)
After she was saved from the car wreck, the former firefighter shared what happened next: “At that moment, the doctor told us she was in cardiac arrest.
“We performed CPR, and after about 20 seconds, she woke up. Then we moved her to the ambulance.”
Gourmelon thought Diana would fully recover, but unfortunately, she passed away from her injuries at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris.
At the hospital, she suffered another cardiac arrest, and the medical team couldn’t save her.
In a 2017 interview with The Sun, Gourmelon expressed, “Honestly, I believed she would survive. But later, I learned she had died in the hospital, which was really heartbreaking.
“I now understand she had serious internal injuries, but that whole experience is still fresh in my mind.
“The memory of that night will always stick with me.
“I had no clue it was Princess Diana at the time. I only found out when one of the paramedics mentioned it after she was in the ambulance.”
A French investigation blamed Henri Paul for the crash, while a British inquest ruled it as unlawful killing due to grossly negligent driving by Paul and the paparazzi trailing them.
Featured Image Credit: Diana Archive/Getty Images