How to maintain fire safety training during a heat wave?

June 2026 will go down as the hottest month ever recorded in France, with 24 June setting an all-time record according to Météo-France. For fire safety trainers and training organisations, the impact is immediate: outdoor sessions are being cancelled one after another. Yet fire safety training during a heat wave is not a dead end.

📋 In brief - How to maintain fire safety training during a heat wave?

By moving the session indoors using augmented reality: the simulator overlays virtual fire outbreaks in the company's real environment, allowing hands-on fire extinguisher training to take place in an air-conditioned room, without real fire or heat exposure.

• The problem: outdoor sessions (fire tray, extinguishers) are being cancelled in a chain reaction as soon as temperatures rise.
• The legal basis: article L4121-1 makes the employer responsible for the physical and mental health of employees.
• The cost of a cancellation: a session cancelled on the day is still invoiced, and rescheduling slips into already busy calendars.
• The solution: augmented reality preserves real handling gestures, indoors, whatever the weather.

Heat waves: when the client cancels on-site fire safety training

The problem does not come from a lack of goodwill from companies. It comes from a collision between a fixed schedule and unpredictable weather.

Summer 2026: cancellations in cascade as soon as temperatures rise

Traditional fire safety training relies on outdoor practical exercises: handling fire extinguishers on a fire tray, usually in the company car park. As soon as temperatures soar, these exercises become untenable. Real fire adds its own heat to the ambient air, trainees are standing in full sun, and the trainer runs one group after another all day long.

Observation from the field this summer: clients cancel the moment the trainer arrives on site. The simple fact that the training is scheduled outdoors, in extreme heat, is enough to trigger the cancellation.

Training planned months in advance, cancelled in one minute

This is where the problem becomes structural. Fire safety training sessions are scheduled well in advance, often several months ahead. No one can predict, at the time of planning, that a heat wave will hit precisely that week.

The client company then faces an impossible choice: maintain a session that exposes employees to the heat, or cancel a fire safety training that is legally required and organised well in advance. And increasingly, they opt for cancellation.

Article L4121-1: the employer responsible for employee health

This decision to cancel is not excessive caution. It is grounded in a precise legal basis.

"The employer shall take the measures necessary to ensure the safety and protect the physical and mental health of workers.

These measures shall include:

1° Actions to prevent occupational risks, including those referred to in article L. 4161-1;

2° Information and training actions;

3° The establishment of appropriate organisation and means.

The employer shall ensure that these measures are adapted to take account of changing circumstances and to improve existing situations."

Article L4121-1 of the French Labour Code

The reading is unambiguous: the employer is responsible for the physical and mental health of employees, and must adapt measures "to take account of changing circumstances". A heat wave is exactly that: a change of circumstances. Maintaining a real fire exercise in full sun at 36 °C becomes difficult to defend under this text.

BANNIERE-MID : FIRE AR

Augmented reality: maintaining fire safety training indoors, whatever the weather

Can fire safety training be maintained during a heat wave? Yes, by moving the session indoors using augmented reality. Practical exercises take place in an air-conditioned room, with the same gestures as with real fire.

Training in an air-conditioned room, in the client's own premises

With an augmented reality fire safety simulator like FIRE AR, the session no longer depends on the weather. The trainer sets up the equipment in a meeting room, a workshop, a corridor: any indoor space in the client's premises becomes the training ground.

Augmented reality displays virtual flames and smoke directly in the trainees' real environment. They train where they work, in their own premises, in the cool. The educational dimension of "fire on home turf" is preserved, without the constraints of real fire.

The extinguisher gesture preserved, without real fire or heat exposure

The classic objection collapses on its own: the manipulation remains physical. Virtualized extinguishers reproduce real devices (CO₂, water, ABC powder): pull the pin, aim at the base of the flames, sweep. The gesture learned is the real gesture.

Pedagogical realism is even enhanced on one point: the virtual fire reacts to the quality of the intervention. An inappropriate extinguishing agent or a poorly executed gesture, and the fire resists or reignites. The trainee immediately understands why technique matters.

Fire tray vs. augmented reality: what changes in practice

For further reading, a complete comparison of fire safety training solutions (fire tray, mobile unit, laser extinguishers, e-learning, VR, AR) is available on the blog.

Maintaining training rather than cancelling: what it concretely avoids

Beyond complying with the obligation to protect, maintaining the session avoids a cascade of costs and complications on both sides of the contract.

The costs of a same-day cancellation

A last-minute cancellation does not erase the invoice. Depending on the training organisation's terms and conditions, a session cancelled on the day remains due, in full or in part. The company therefore pays for a training that did not take place.

On the training organisation side, the trainer's day is lost, vehicle travel and associated costs are incurred for nothing, and the slot will not be billed to another client. A weather cancellation is a double dead loss.

Rescheduling, busy calendars, lost logistics: the double penalty

Then comes the challenge of finding a new date. And this is where things get complicated: the training organisation's schedule and the company's schedule need to align, which is not always possible.

On the company side, the equation is heavy: mobilising employees again, finding a common slot, accepting that activity slows down during the training. On the training organisation side, schedules are already packed. Result: training postponed by several weeks, and employees who, in the meantime, are still not trained.

By maintaining the session indoors, all of this disappears:

• Training takes place on the scheduled date
• No cancellation costs on either side
• No lost slot in the training organisation's schedule
• No delay in employee training obligations

FIRE AR in brief: the augmented reality fire safety simulator

FIRE AR is an augmented reality fire safety simulator developed by IRWINO, designed for trainers, training organisations and companies with in-house trainers.

The principle: a Meta Quest 3 or 3S headset overlays virtual fires, smoke and equipment in the real training environment using augmented reality. Trainees use virtualized extinguishers with real weight and gestures, and can run complete evacuation scenarios through buildings, all the way to the outdoor assembly point.

Over 150 trainers are already equipped with FIRE AR in France and internationally. The solution works without consumables, without a fire permit and without an internet connection, over hundreds of square metres of training space, across multiple floors, indoors or outdoors. During a heat wave, the entire session can simply be switched to an air-conditioned indoor space.

BANNIERE-FIN : FIRE AR | Train without cancellation, whatever the weather. FIRE AR deploys indoors: whether it's a heat wave, rain or freezing cold, the session always goes ahead.

Key takeaways

Is fire safety training mandatory even during a heat wave?

Yes. Fire safety training obligations under the Labour Code are not suspended by weather conditions. A heat wave does not exempt the employer from training employees: it requires them to adapt the training arrangements to protect their health, in accordance with article L4121-1.

Can the fire tray be replaced by augmented reality?

Yes, and the pedagogical coverage is even broader. The fire tray only covers around 10 % of the fire process: extinguishing the fire. Augmented reality allows 100 % of the process to be trained: fire detection, alert, choice of the right extinguishing agent, handling, and complete evacuation to the assembly point. All in the trainees' real working environment, without real fire.

What happens if a fire safety training is cancelled on the day?

Depending on the training organisation's general terms and conditions, a same-day cancellation remains generally invoiced, in full or in part. Add to this indirect costs: rescheduling on already busy calendars, employees already released from their posts for nothing, and delays in training deadlines.

Is augmented reality fire safety training compliant with legal obligations?

The Labour Code imposes a result (training employees in first response measures), not a single method. Augmented reality training, delivered by a trainer, allows extinguisher handling and evacuation to be practised.

What space does augmented reality training require?

Anywhere in the client's premises: meeting room, workshop, corridor, open-plan office, and up to hundreds of square metres across multiple floors, indoors or outdoors. No fire permit or internet connection is required. During extreme heat, the entire session can therefore take place in an air-conditioned room.

Further reading on fire safety training and heat at work

Article L4121-1 of the French Labour Code (Légifrance)

Overview of the June 2026 heat wave (Météo-France)