Fire Service In France
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The fire service in
France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
is organised into local fire services which mostly cover the
Departments of France In the administrative divisions of France, the department (, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level ("territorial collectivity, territorial collectivities"), between the Regions of France, administrative regions a ...
, with a few exceptions. There are two types of fire service: *The
Paris Fire Brigade The Paris Fire Brigade (, BSPP) is a French Army unit which serves as the primary fire and rescue service for Paris, the city's inner suburbs and certain sites of national strategic importance. The brigade's main area of responsibility is the ...
(
Army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...
) and
Marseille Naval Fire Battalion The Marseille Naval Fire Battalion (, or ''BMPM''), is the fire and rescue service for the city of Marseille. The battalion is a branch of the French Navy (), and consists of fully military personnel, like the Paris Fire Brigade (a branch of the ...
(
Navy A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...
) are military units providing fire protection to Paris and Marseille. *The rest of France has civilian fire services organized, supervised and trained by the French
Ministry of the Interior An interior ministry or ministry of the interior (also called ministry of home affairs or ministry of internal affairs) is a government department that is responsible for domestic policy, public security and law enforcement. In some states, the ...
; specifically, they fall under the
Civil Defence Civil defense or civil protection is an effort to protect the citizens of a state (generally non-combatants) from human-made and natural disasters. It uses the principles of emergency management: prevention, mitigation, preparation, response, ...
and Security Directorate (''Direction Générale de la Sécurité Civile et de la Gestion de Crise'', DGSCGC). There are approximately 246,900 fire service personnel in France operating 15,642 emergency vehicles out of 6,894 emergency centres. In addition to providing fire protection and rescue, the French fire service is also one of the providers of
emergency medical services Emergency medical services (EMS), also known as ambulance services, pre-hospital care or paramedic services, are emergency services that provide urgent pre-hospital treatment and stabilisation for serious illness and injuries and transport to d ...
. In French, firefighters are known as sapeurs-pompiers or informally as pompiers. The former originally refers to the military-based Paris Fire Brigade. ''Pompier'' (pumper) comes from the word for pump (pompe), referring to the manual pumps originally used for firefighting. ''Sapeur'' means
sapper A sapper, also called a combat engineer, is a combatant or soldier who performs a variety of military engineering duties, such as breaching fortifications, demolitions, bridge-building, laying or clearing minefields, preparing field defenses ...
and refers to the first official firefighting unit created by
Napoleon I Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...
, which was part of the military engineering arm. Firefighters in the
Marseille Marine Fire Battalion The Marseille Naval Fire Battalion (, or ''BMPM''), is the fire and rescue service for the city of Marseille. The battalion is a branch of the French Navy (), and consists of fully military personnel, like the Paris Fire Brigade (a branch of the ...
are known as marins-pompiers (sailor-firefighters). The usual name of a civilian fire services is a service départemental d'incendie et de secours (SDIS) (Departmental Fire and Rescue Service). Young French citizens can fulfill the mandatory service '' Service national universel (SNU)'' in one of the fire brigades.


Organization


Central administration

The Directorate General for Civil Defence and Crisis Management (DGSCGC) is the central administrative structure responsible for risk management in France, whether it concerns everyday accidents or major disasters. It includes several directorates: * Fire brigade directorate (DSP); * Sub-directorate for crisis preparation, anticipation and management (SDPAGC); * Sub-directorate for national resources (SDMN); * Sub-directorate for international affairs, resources and strategy (SDAIRS). The DGSCGC has at its disposal a civil defence headquarters (EMSC) and the general inspectorate for civil defence (IGSC). It employs approximately 3,000 civilian and military personnel spread over 60 sites.


Local fire services

The fire service is organized based on the various
departments Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military * Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...
. Each department has a ''Service Departmentaux d'Incendie et de Secours'' (SDIS, Departmental Fire and Rescue Service) responsible for operations within its territory, with a few exceptions: *
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
and the three departments of the ''
petite couronne Petit is a French-language surname literally meaning "small" or "little". Notable people with the surname include: *Adriana Petit (born 1984), Spanish multidisciplinary artist *Alexis Thérèse Petit (1791–1820), French physicist * Amandine Pet ...
'' (
Hauts-de-Seine Hauts-de-Seine (; ) is a department in the Île-de-France region of France. It covers Paris's western inner suburbs. It is bordered by Paris, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne to the east, Val-d'Oise to the north, Yvelines to the west and ...
,
Seine-Saint-Denis () is a department of France located in the Grand Paris metropolis in the region. In French, it is often referred to colloquially as ' or ' ("ninety-three" or "nine three"), after its official administrative number, 93. Its prefecture is Bobi ...
and
Val-de-Marne Val-de-Marne (, "Vale of the Marne") is a department of France located in the Île-de-France region. Named after the river Marne, it is situated in the Grand Paris metropolis to the southeast of the City of Paris. In 2019, Val-de-Marne had a ...
) are covered by the
Paris Fire Brigade The Paris Fire Brigade (, BSPP) is a French Army unit which serves as the primary fire and rescue service for Paris, the city's inner suburbs and certain sites of national strategic importance. The brigade's main area of responsibility is the ...
. *
Bouches-du-Rhône Bouches-du-Rhône ( ; , ; ; "the Mouths of the Rhône") is a Departments of France, department in southern France. It borders Vaucluse to the north, Gard to the west and Var (department), Var to the east. The Mediterranean Sea lies to the sout ...
is covered by both the Marseille Naval Fire Battalion and a civilian Bouches-du-Rhône SDIS. *
Lyon Metropolis The Metropolis of Lyon (, ), also known as Grand Lyon (, "Greater Lyon"), is a French territorial collectivity in the east-central region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. It is a directly-elected metropolitan authority, encompassing both the city of Ly ...
and
Rhône The Rhône ( , ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Ròse''; Franco-Provençal, Arpitan: ''Rôno'') is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and Southeastern France before dischargi ...
are both covered by the Rhône SDIS, reflecting Rhône's boundaries before 2015. *
Corsica Corsica ( , , ; ; ) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the Regions of France, 18 regions of France. It is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of the Metro ...
is divided between two fire services, reflecting the departments that existed from 1975 to 2017.


Fire service based Emergency Medical Services

Local
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 also respond to medical calls and can send an
ambulance An ambulance is a medically-equipped vehicle used to transport patients to treatment facilities, such as hospitals. Typically, out-of-hospital medical care is provided to the patient during the transport. Ambulances are used to respond to ...
, a multi-purpose response vehicle or even a
fire apparatus A firefighting apparatus (North American English) or firefighting appliance (UK English) describes any vehicle that has been customized for use during firefighting operations. These vehicles are highly customized depending on their needs and the d ...
. Here the cross-trained
firefighter A firefighter (or fire fighter or fireman) is a first responder trained in specific emergency response such as firefighting, primarily to control and extinguish fires and respond to emergencies such as hazardous material incidents, medical in ...
s will provide care at the scene and transport for injuries or illness but are usually backed up by a
SMUR Emergency medical services in France are provided by a mix of organizations under public health control. The central organizations that provide these services are known as a SAMU, which stands for (, ). Local SAMU organisations operate the contr ...
unit for more serious or complex cases. Firefighters are trained to provide
basic life support Basic life support (BLS) is a level of medical care which is used for patients with life-threatening condition of cardiac arrest until they can be given full medical care by advanced life support providers (paramedics, nurses, physicians or any ...
(BLS) care. Although they also transport casualties and are, in any practical sense, ambulances, their vehicles are instead called a VSAV ( – rescue and casualty assistance vehicle). Volunteer-staffed ambulances may be called VPS ( – first aid vehicle). The VSAV and VPS are considered to be means of bringing rescue workers and equipment to the scene, with the evacuation of patients being the logical result of the response but not the primary duty of these response resources.


Personnel

As of December 2015 there were 246,900 firefighters in France: * 78% voluntary/call firefighters * 22% career firefighters, including: **17% civilian **5% military firefighters (the
Paris Fire Brigade The Paris Fire Brigade (, BSPP) is a French Army unit which serves as the primary fire and rescue service for Paris, the city's inner suburbs and certain sites of national strategic importance. The brigade's main area of responsibility is the ...
and
Marseille Naval Fire Battalion The Marseille Naval Fire Battalion (, or ''BMPM''), is the fire and rescue service for the city of Marseille. The battalion is a branch of the French Navy (), and consists of fully military personnel, like the Paris Fire Brigade (a branch of the ...
) In addition they employed 11,910 medical responders and 10,900 administrative and support personnel. The ''jeunes sapeurs-pompiers'' (Junior fighters) and cadets numbered 27,800.


Civilian professional fire fighters

Civilian professional fire fighters are local government civil servants of class A, B, and C. Civil servants class A and B, and their volunteer counterparts, are trained at the National Fire College, ''École nationale supérieure des officiers de sapeurs-pompiers.'' Given their military origin, rank insignia follow those of the French Army.


Class C

Professional fire fighters class C are recruited from volunteer fire fighters or youth fire fighters, age 18 or above, with three years service as Sapper without a civil service exam. Corporals can be recruited with a civil service exam open to direct entry candidates who passed middle school, and through a civil service exam open to volunteer fire fighters or youth fire fighters, with three years service. In 2017, Sapeur de 1re classe was abolished and Sapeur de 2e classe was replaced by the rank of Sapeur, except for volunteers whose grades remained unchanged. Promotion to Corporal can occur after three years as Sapper; to Chief Corporal after five years as Corporal. Sergents are selected through a civil service exam open to team leaders. Promotion to Adjudant and Chief Adjudant can occur after four years as Sergeant/Chief Sergeant. Since 2013, Chief Adjutant is the highest NCO rank of most departments as the rank of Major has been abolished.


Class B

Professional fire fighters class B are recruited through civil service exams open to direct entry candidates with a
foundation degree A foundation degree is a combined academic and vocational qualification in higher education in the United Kingdom, equivalent to two-thirds of an honours bachelor's degree. Foundation degrees were introduced by the Department for Education and ...
in engineering, and to fire fighters class C with four years service, leading to employment as Lieutenant 1st class; and through a civil service exam open to fire fighters class C qualified as senior crew commanders, leading to employment as Lieutenant 2nd class. 75% of the promotions from Lieutenant 2nd class to Lieutenant 1st class are through a civil service exam open to Lieutenants 2nd class with three years in the grade; 25 % through selection from Lieutenants 2nd class with five years in the grade. 75 % of the promotions from Lieutenant 1st class to Lieutenant above class are through a civil service exam open to Lieutenants 1st class with three years in the grade; 25 % through selection from Lieutenants 1st class with five years in the grade. Direct entry lieutenants 1st class are undergoing a 32 weeks course at the French Fire College (). Lieutenants 2nd class are undergoing a 12-week course at the Fire College, while Lieutenants 1st class promoted from 2nd class, are in addition undergoing a course of 6 weeks.


Class A

Professional fire fighters class A are recruited through civil service exams open to direct entry candidates with a
bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...
in engineering, and to fire fighters class B qualified as sector commanders. Commandants are selected through a civil service exam from captains with three years in the grade; lieutenant-colonels from commandants with five years in the grade. Direct entry captains are undergoing a 42-week course, and internal entry captains a 10-week course, at the National Fire College.


Class A+

Professional fire fighters class A+ hold senior management positions, such as brigade manager, deputy brigade manager, or senior expert for the government. Colonels are recruited through civil service exams open to fire fighters class A qualified as area managers. They undergo a 32-week course at the National Fire College. Colonels hors-classe are selected from colonels with four years in the grade; contrôleurs généraux from colonels hors-classe with at least 8 years’ experience as brigade manager, senior manager for the government, or similar positions that are listed by a decree. The contrôleur général insignia has 2 pyres. However some officers who handle special responsibilities within the government have a 3 pyres insignia.


Central administration


Responses

In 2015, the French fire services responded to 4,453,300 incidents, most of which were medical: *Fires 300,700 *Road traffic accidents 279,400 *Medical emergencies 3,413,300 *Technological emergencies 53,200 *Other 406,700 Paris and Marseille comprise 10% of the national total.


See also

*
Emergency medical services in France Emergency medical services in France are provided by a mix of organizations under Health care in France, public health control. The central organizations that provide these services are known as a SAMU, which stands for (, ). Local SAMU organisat ...


References


External links

*
Official website (French Ministry of the Interior)
*
National federation of French firefighters
{{Europe topic, Fire services in Society of France Emergency management in France Emergency medical services in France