The fire service in France is known as Sapeurs-pompiers, except in Marseille, where naval "sailor-firefighters", marins-pompiers, provide fire and rescue services.
There are two categories:
- The Paris Fire Brigade (Army) and Marseille Naval Fire Battalion (Navy) 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; specifically, they fall under the Civil Defence 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.
Pompier (firefighter) etymologically comes from the concept of pumping (water) and refers to the manual pumps that were originally used. Sapeur means "sapper" and refers to the first official firefighting unit created by Napoleon I which was part of the military engineering arm.
Video Fire services in France
Categories
As of December 2015, there were 246,900 sapeurs-pompiers in France:
- 17% professionals (paid)
- 78% sapeurs-pompiers volontaires (volunteers and hourly paid)
- 5% militaires (military)
Women comprised 14% of the civil sapeurs-pompiers.
The service de santé et de secours medical (medical emergency service) numbered 11,910.
The administrative personnel, technicians and specialists numbered 10,900.
The jeunes sapeurs-pompiers (Junior fighters) and cadets numbered 27,800.
There are also few (328) civil volunteer firefighters (sapeurs-pompiers volontaires civils). The civil volunteers status was created in 2000 when the conscription was abolished. It is a national service, i.e. full-time job for 6 months to 2 years, but with a reduced pay.
Maps Fire services in France
Organization
Headquarters are located in:
Direction des sapeur-pompiers
Immeuble le Garance
18-20 rue des Pyrénées
75020 Paris
Local organization is based in the various Departmental Fire and Rescue Services (Services Departmentaux d'Incendie et de Secours (SDIS)).
Personnel and rank insignia
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 volonteers 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.
Sources:
Class B
Professional fire fighters class B are recruited through civil service exams open to direct entry candidates with a foundation degree 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 (Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Officiers de Sapeurs-Pompiers). 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.
Sources
Class A
Professional fire fighters class A are recruited through civil service exams open to direct entry candidates with a bachelor's degree 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.
Sources
Class A+
Professionnal fire fighters class A+ hold senior management positions, such as brigade manager, deputy brigade manager, or senior expert for the governement.
Colonels are recruited through civil service exams open to fire fighters class A qualified as area managers. The laureates are undergoing 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 of 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 can have a 3 pyres insignia.
Sources
Responses
In 2015, there were 4,453,300 interventions:
- Fires 300,700
- Car accidents 279,400
- Medical emergencies 3,413,300
- Technologic emergencies 53,200
- Other 406,700
Paris and Marseille comprise 10% of the national total.
See also
- Emergency medical services in France
References
External links
- (in French) Official website (French Ministry of the Interior)
- (in French) National federation of French firefighters
Source of article : Wikipedia
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