The mercury has dropped in recent days, particularly with the passage of the snowy episode. Be careful if you turn your heating system back on, due to carbon monoxide.
It is abouta gas invisible, odorless and yet dangerous and even deadly. The Finistère firefighters therefore decided to launch a prevention campaign on the risks linked to this gas, which is responsible for the deaths of around a hundred people each year in France.
“We have a cult of prevention at SDIS 29. Above all, we want to alert citizens. We can never say enough how much we must act on this gas which is odorless and colorless, and who can kill you without you realizing it. In every possible way, it is a question of attracting the attention of citizens to this risk“, explain Marguerite Lamour, president of the Board of Directors of SDIS 29at the Alouette microphone.
23 additional interventions in two years
We do not deplore no deaths in Finistère in 2023 but the department's firefighters intervened 73 occasions, compared to 50 in 2022.
You can be a victim of carbon monoxide poisoning depending on the heating mode that we use, mainly fireplaces, stoves, gas and oil boilers which can suffer froma lack of maintenance.
Pour Jérôme Toullec, head of the Kerallan Main Rescue Center in Brestyou must, first of all, check your heating device. “Every year, heaters need to be checkedswept for some. It is also good to remember thatwe do not block these ventilationsthey are precisely made to renew the air and allow gases to escape.“
Good actions to follow
As for the symptoms relating to carbon monoxide poisoning, these are drowsiness, nausea and headaches. “If these symptoms are identified, you must alert the emergency services and leave the accommodation by ventilating it and stopping the heating mode. This is the procedure to adopt.“
Four fire brigade vehicles from the centers of Brest, Quimper, Morlaix and Quimperlé have just been flocked with the main prevention messages so that they are seen on the way to interventions.
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