Sunday 1 March 2015

Our latest LAW.



Annoying French laws come and go. I often think they reflect what company the current President has shares in.

In recent times we've had several swimming pool laws (fences and/or alarms), we've also been made to have breathalyser kits and high-viz jackets in our cars, and now we are instructed to have smoke alarms in the house.

How considerate they are to think of our safety.


As from the 8th of March we are obliged to have at least one smoke alarm in the house.

I'm not against such things, in fact I've installed two. But we have a slight problem; seeing as both of our heating appliances are wood fired (Godin stove in sitting room, and poor-man's Aga in the kitchen), when they are opened to re-fuel quite a lot of smoke can occasionally spill forth. 

I've not yet tested the alarms to see if they will scream at me every time I bung a log on the fire, but if the alarms are as sensitive as they suggest, then I'm expecting that they will. 

With our pool and the car, no-one has yet been to inspect that we are applying by the law, and I imagine that it may be the same with the smoke alarms. But the local fire brigade chief does call every winter to sell us his calendar, so maybe this winter he'll also ask to see the alarms.

The info' in the top picture in on the back of this year's Sapeurs Pompiers calendar.



23 comments:

  1. We have one of these things, it's extremely sensitive, goes off at the least provocation. Good to know it works though.

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  2. We have a smoke alarm in our hall but have never heard it go off - could be that the battery has expired!
    Our smoking rules here are quite stringent (as a non smoker I agree with them) but the only trouble is that as noone can smoke inside places the smokers tend to congregate outside to smoke. This makes the entrance to hospitals in particular absolutely horrible as one runs the gauntlet of smokers (and cigarette ends). I find it quite macabre to see desperately ill people, often wheeled there in wheel chairs, still smoking.

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    Replies
    1. I agree. I find these exterior congregations bizarre, but I'd never go against their right to smoke; even if it will kill them.

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    2. I don't smoke but I hate anti smoking laws. The streets are full of smokers; you can't walk without being behind one. Let them smoke inside and ban it outdoors.

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  3. I support the idea of every property having a smoke alarm but no way support the idea of authorities coming into my privately-owned home to check up on me.

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  4. Judging by numerous accounts in our local papers more people have been saved by their dogs waking them up and alerting them to the fire than by their smoke alarms. Maybe they should make it a law that everybody has to keep a dog in the house.

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    Replies
    1. I believe that most deaths in the home are caused by stairs... I've never heard calls for an all bungalow world.... or even for non-sharp knives.

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  5. Annoying laws come but never go.

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  6. Are you not allowed to substitute a smoke alarm for a heat alarm?

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    Replies
    1. I've not heard of a 'heat alarm'... Wouldn't that go off in Summer?

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    2. No, it is for intense heat of the sort which accumulates on ceilings during actual fires. We have smoke-detectors in the rest of the house, but a heat detector in the kitchen, otherwise we would have problems burning toast, like everyone else does. They are obviously not as sensitive as smoke ones, and it would have to be a good fire to set it off, but I think the smoke ones in the hall would pick up on that before it got too hot.

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    3. Ours are wired-in and not battery, though.

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    4. I've just remembered.... I've put one in the kitchen right above the toaster (which Lady M uses). Sod it.

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  7. We have a fire alarm and a carbon monoxide alarm. Good things to have.

    A spare fire alarm was once tidied away into a bedroom drawer. Took us days to locate the odd bleeping noise after the batteries had died.

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  8. We are required to have a smoke detector and carbon monoxide alarm on each floor...and yes....they are sensitive. Don't burn the toast.

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  9. When we had the extension built the law had changed from one smoke detector on each floor to one in each bedroom. The two new bedrooms have smoke detectors. The downstairs detector in now a "Nest" one and is on the wifi. The thing talks to you telling you it has detected smoke - waving arms at it tells it that it's ok and to not sound an alarm, so when you burn the toast you don't go deaf.

    Talking about this has made me think that I probably should get a smoke detector in my sewing room. One friend said half her house burnt down when the kitten played with one of the "full spectrum light" lamps. The smoke detector alerted her to the fire and she was able to get out of the house to call the emergency services.

    The entrances to the hospitals used to be where smokers could be found, but now most hospitals are "no tobacco campuses".

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  10. A heat alarm might be a better idea if it does go off. They're designed for kitchens and the like

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  11. Here in Maine smoke detectors have been mandatory for a long time. In all rental units they must be hard wired. Now the hard wired kind are mandatory for all new construction as well, rental or private. Houses here are wood built and do burn on a regular basis. There is at least one report a night on the news, often more. Fatalities are frequent. Usually in older multi-family, multi-story rental buildings in the low rent district that are neglected and detectors are non functional if they even have them. Smoke detectors do save lives. But like mine, at the top of the stairs and the highest spot in the house, if I open my oven or smoke the pan a bit while cooking it will go off. So standard procedure is to pull the battery before cooking.

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  12. Smoke alarms are mandatory here, you have to have one near each bedroom. We have one about half way between the bedroom and the kitchen and quite often cooking will set it off.

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  13. I have three smoke detectors in this house. I take the battery out of the one near the kitchen because it goes off when I burn the cooking. I had smoke alarms in my rented property and carbon monoxide one as well. I didn't know what the rules were but it seemed the right thing to do.

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  14. I wish all cars were fitted with breathalyzers. I just went to a funeral of a young woman who thought she would live forever but made a fatal mistake. Thank God, she did not take anyone with her.

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  15. Apparently, photoelectric smoke alarms are a better type to use than ionization alarms. They respond to smoldering fires more quickly, which is what tends to kill people. We down under have had mandatory smoke alarms for years, and how it is worked is that if you apply for a consent to build or alter, someone - the building inspector or the applicant tradesperson, needs to check off that you have them,even if you are putting in a loo or some other unrelated work.
    I do think it is pretty bizarre that you have to have a breathalyzer though. Surely having one is not the point, it is not a magic object the presence of which will somehow make the driver sober. Lawmakers' logic often escapes me.

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  16. In Florida we have to have our smoke alarm monitored by the alarm company. We also have to have on on every floor. We have burned toast and had the fire brigade at the door as the alarm company calls them before us. After 2 false alarms we get fined. Glad to have the alarms though. Houses in the USA and Canada have to have them to pass final inspection.

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