Less than 1% of French homes are installed with smoke/fire detectors. But this may soon change as legislation is likely to be approved this year to make them compulsory for private and public housing in France. Over the last twelve months there have been three dramatic incidents of fire-related deaths in over-crowded apartment buildings. In October 2005, these tragedies led the Senate to propose legislation to make smoke and fire detectors obligatory. The legislation is likely to be approved in 2006.
Fire is the number one cause of death in children under 5 in France. Fires in the home are reported every two minutes in France and cause some 800 deaths a year, of which 80% are due to inhalation of carbon monoxide.
Most revealing, while 70% of fires are reported during the daytime, 70% of deaths occur during the night - the result of carbon monoxide poisoning. Advocates of making smoke detectors obligatory point to other countries where there is a high penetration rate in homes such as Norway (98% of housing), Canada and the USA (95%) and the UK (89%). All of these countries have seen deaths from fire and monoxide poisoning halved.
The government is set to debate the topic later this year. The main discussion point will be on the role of the insurance companies and whether they should participate in some form to the cost of installation – perhaps by granting lower tariffs to those houses who install rapidly. When approved, the legislation is likely to allow a three year period for houses to get equipped. That represents three years of a full order book for the right installer – call us for more information.
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