"Immediate access to a fire extinguisher can make a difference": MP Alexandra Martin wants to make this equipment mandatory in all vehicles

"From July 8 to 10, a fire of rare intensity ravaged the outskirts of Marseille, mobilizing hundreds of firefighters and causing the evacuation of several neighborhoods. The cause of this disaster: a simple vehicle that caught fire on the highway," recalls Alexandra Martin.

On July 15, the Republican MP for Alpes-Maritimes submitted a proposed resolution to the National Assembly.

The goal: to make it mandatory to carry a fire extinguisher in all vehicles—including private vehicles—and all individual homes. This initiative is currently being co-signed by several parliamentarians.

A first resolution filed in 2022

This text echoes a previous resolution tabled by the Côte d'Azur MP in September 2022, following the fire in La Teste-de-Buch, Gironde, in the summer of 2022. This disaster was caused by an electrical fault in a van with a combustion engine. Her proposal was not acted upon.

French legislation is lagging behind in terms of prevention, deplores the secretary general of Nouvelle Énergie, David Lisnard's movement.

While countries like Germany and Belgium already require fire extinguishers in private vehicles, France limits the requirement to professional vehicles only.

In the accommodations too

The same observation is true in homes. While smoke detectors have been mandatory since 2015, fire extinguishers still aren't, despite an explosion in the number of domestic fires—250,000 each year, or one every two minutes.

This includes, in particular, lithium batteries in telephones, scooters and electric bicycles.

"Reaction time in the first seconds of a fire is crucial. Immediate access to a fire extinguisher can mean the difference between a controlled incident and a tragedy," insists Alexandra Martin, who suggests using powder extinguishers for vehicles and _CO2 ₂ extinguishers for homes, adapted to the identified risks.