The Civil Protection is a Belgian federal service that falls under the Directorate-General Civil Security of the

Federal Public Service Interior The FPS Interior (, , ), formerly the Ministry of the Interior, is a Federal Public Service of Belgium. It was created by Royal Order on 14 January 2002, as part of the plans of the Verhofstadt I Government to modernise the federal administratio ...

(the former Ministry of the Interior). It operates as a specialized second-line service. It is not a first response service like the

fire department A fire department (North American English) or fire brigade (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), also known as a fire company, fire authority, fire district, fire and rescue, or fire service in some areas, is an organi ...

s, but is only called upon when specialized assistance is needed. Its main tasks revolve around CBRN incidents, search and rescue operations and heavy technical assistance. Some Civil Protection units however also partake in the regular emergency response in their area, for example for

firefighting Firefighting is a profession aimed at controlling and extinguishing fire. A person who engages in firefighting is known as a firefighter or fireman. Firefighters typically undergo a high degree of technical training. This involves structural fir ...

or emergency medical assistance. The minister of the Interior can also order agents of the Civil Protection to partake in foreign missions of B-FAST, the Belgian foreign emergency relief team. The Civil Protection consists of a central direction in Brussels and six operational units spread across the Belgian territory. Each operational unit is responsible for the interventions in their area. Some operational units are specialized in certain areas, mostly dependent on their location (for example underground search and rescue). As of 2016, the Belgian Civil Protection employs about 1,100 people, of which 450 professionals and 650 volunteers, and operates almost 670 vehicles. In 2016, it also undertook about 5,500 interventions. In April 2017, minister of the Interior Jan Jambon announced the closure of four of the six operational units of the Civil Protection. The goal was to reform the Civil Protection to be a purely second line service, and to transfer any first response tasks to the local fire departments. The plans drew criticism from unions and local municipalities, who feared increased response times during disasters. There was also concern about the location of one of the two remaining units, which would lie in the

exclusion zone An exclusion zone is a geographic area in which specific activities are prohibited by an authority. The United States Department of Defense defines an exclusion zone is a territory where an authority prohibits specific activities in a specific g ...

in case of a

nuclear accident A nuclear and radiation accident is defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as "an event that has led to significant consequences to people, the environment or the facility." Examples include radiation poisoning, lethal effect ...

in the Doel nuclear power plant. Minister Jambon however replied that the specialized tasks the Civil Protection would still have were less time-critical.

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{{authority control Emergency services in Belgium Government agencies of Belgium 1934 establishments in Belgium

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