“I Saw Her Eyes”: Firefighter Who Tried to Save Princess Diana Breaks Silence on Their First Moments — “She Was Still Alive…”
For the first time in decades, the firefighter who was first on the scene of the tragic car crash that killed Princess Diana has shared the haunting memory of their brief but powerful encounter. Speaking softly, but with visible emotion, retired firefighter Xavier Gourmelon recounted the final moments he spent with the Princess of Wales on that fateful night in Paris.“I didn’t know who she was at first,” Gourmelon recalled. “There was chaos, glass, metal, smoke. But then I saw her face — and I saw her eyes.”
On the night of August 31, 1997, Diana’s car crashed in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel. Gourmelon was one of the first emergency responders to arrive. What he saw would stay with him forever.
“She was still alive. She was conscious. She looked at me,” he said. “She asked softly, ‘What’s happened?’”
Gourmelon and his team acted swiftly, working to stabilize Diana and remove her from the wreckage. He described her injuries as “severe but not immediately fatal in appearance” and said she seemed calm, as if unaware of the full gravity of the situation.
“She didn’t scream. She didn’t cry. She looked at me, and I felt something… a strange stillness. She had grace even in pain.”Only later, at the hospital, did Gourmelon learn who she truly was.
“Someone told me, ‘That was Princess Diana.’ I was shocked. I couldn’t believe it. The woman I just tried to save — the one who looked at me with trust — was one of the most famous, most beloved women in the world.”
Despite their efforts, Diana passed away hours later. The news devastated the world, but for Gourmelon, it was personal.
“I remember holding her hand as we moved her. I didn’t know it would be one of her last moments.”
For over 20 years, Gourmelon remained silent, bound by duty and personal grief. Now, older and retired, he felt it was time to speak — not to relive the tragedy, but to honor “the human being behind the princess.”
“She wasn’t just royalty. She was a person — vulnerable, brave, and dignified, even in her final hour. I will never forget that look in her eyes.”
His story has reignited public emotion and brought fresh tribute to Diana’s memory — a reminder not of how she died, but of how deeply she touched the lives of even those who knew her for only a moment.
As the world continues to remember the “People’s Princess,” these words from the man who held her hand in her last conscious moments resonate most:
“She didn’t die alone. She was seen. She was comforted. And in those final seconds, she knew someone was there.”
