Household fires

A fire at your home

If a fire occurs at your place of residence, you should:

• Leave your apartment, taking care to shut the door behind you
• Keep calm, and once you are safe, call the fire and emergency service (dial 18 or 112)

A fire outside your home

If a fire occurs outside your place of residence, you should:

• Remain in your home
• Block up gaps around your door and dampen it (a 30mm thick door made of solid wood can withstand a fire for 30 minutes)
• Avoid evacuating through smoke, which is very toxic
• Keep the door of your apartment closed, and do not jump out of the window
• Signal your presence from a window or by telephone so that you can be found

The following should not be used in your electrical system:

• Multiple sockets for powering high-power electrical devices
• Damaged electrical wiring
• Halogen lamps without grates (500 to 150 W)
• Paper lampshades

For heating systems, you should:

• Have the chimney and flues swept once a year (the best way is to have a mechanical sweeping carried out by qualified professionals)
• Never use your cooker, barbecue or brazier for emergency heating
• Never store combustible materials (cardboard, paper) or inflammable products (alcohol, petrol, gas) close to heat sources (heating system)