Firefighters call for “absolute necessity” to train families in protective actions

While seven people from the same family died in a probably arson attack in Nice, French firefighters are reminding people of the “good behavior” that can protect them.

At least seven people, including three young children, have died in aA fire that ravaged an apartment in a building in the Moulins district of Nice on the night of Wednesday 17 to Thursday 18 July. Three fires started “intervened on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors”indicates the prosecutor of Nice, reinforcing “totally the criminal track”. “This tragic fire is a reminder of the absolute need to educate children and families about fire risks, good protective behavior, and to equip their homes.”wrote the spokesperson for the French firefighters, Eric Bocardi, on the social network X.

A few reflexes can indeed sometimes help avoid a tragedy when a fire breaks out. If you can, you should obviously leave the burning place as quickly as possible and head for the exit. But in the event that you are stuck in your home, Lieutenant-Colonel Franck Maillard, prevention specialist at the National Federation of Firefighters of France, explains to franceinfo what can save your life.

Install a smoke detector

In a fire, smoke is your worst enemy. “Once she is in your room, within two or three puffs of inhaling toxic fumes you will very quickly fall unconscious and subsequently die by the flames.explains the firefighter. Death happens in seconds, it’s less than a minute.” The law actually states that iteach accommodation, whether it is located in an individual dwelling or collective, must be equipped with at least one smoke detector. In the event of a fire, when the smoke detector is activated, “You might hear the detector in the hallway, you’ll realize that something abnormal is happening, you’ll see that there’s smoke and you’ll close the door right away.” But closing the door is the action that can save your life.

Close the doors, open the window, call 18

“If all the doors of the apartment are open, the smoke fills the entire volume in a few seconds”explains the lieutenant colonel. Hence the importance of closing the doors in the event of a fire. “You always have to have a door between you and the fire. If you are trapped in your room, then you close the door of your room and you show yourself at the window after having called 18 so that someone can come and get you, explains the firefighter. An apartment door will resist fire for 15 to 20 minutes, which gives the firefighters time to come and get you.”

SO “keep the door tightly closed”and if possible, add “a damp cloth at the foot of this door, the fire will not enter the room in which you are safe.” You have to take refuge in a bubble, that is to say, you also have to choose the right room to take shelter in. That you can close the door, but also open a window. “People are afraid to open the window, but it prevents them from breathing in the toxic fumes that slowly start to seep under the door, and the carbon monoxide, which is the most dangerous gas in the event of a fire, will put you into a coma.”

Introducing children to good habits

“It’s necessary remind people that these are discussions they need to have as a family in the evening with the children”insists the lieutenant-colonel, who calls for questioning the children. “Tomorrow if there is a fire, how will you react? What will you do if there is smoke? Will you go into the smoke?”

“The child must also be able to take the first steps, to say to himself that there is smoke in the corridor so I stay in my room and I make myself known through the window.”

Lieutenant Colonel Maillard

to franceinfo

Lieutenant-Colonel Maillard recalls that in the end there are several elements put “end to end” which enable “to save someone or not”. Hence the importance of reminding people more widely of the need to let the firefighters pass immediately on the road, or not to park in inconvenient places which could, for example, prevent the deployment of the large ladder.