The fire service in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

is known as Sapeurs-pompiers, except in Marseille, where naval "sailor-firefighters", marins-pompiers

Marseille Marine Fire Battalion

The Marseille Marine Fire Battalion, or in French le Bataillon de marins-pompiers de Marseille or BMPM, is the fire and rescue service for the city of Marseille....

, provide fire and rescue services.

There are two categories:

• The Paris Fire Brigade
  Paris Fire Brigade
  The Paris Fire Brigade , is a French Army unit which serves as the fire service for Paris and certain sites of national strategic importance....
  
   (Army) and Marseille Marine Fire Battalion
  Marseille Marine Fire Battalion
  The Marseille Marine Fire Battalion, or in French le Bataillon de marins-pompiers de Marseille or BMPM, is the fire and rescue service for the city of Marseille....
  
   (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
  Minister of the Interior (France)
  The Minister of the Interior in France is one of the most important governmental cabinet positions, responsible for the following:* The general interior security of the country, with respect to criminal acts or natural catastrophes...
  
  ; specifically, they fall under the Civil Defence
  Civil defense
  Civil defense, civil defence or civil protection is an effort to protect the citizens of a state from military attack. It uses the principles of emergency operations: prevention, mitigation, preparation, response, or emergency evacuation, and recovery...
  
   and Security Directorate (Direction des défense et sécurité civiles, DDSC).

There are approximately 250,584 fire service personnel in France operating 15,000 emergency vehicles out of 10,238 emergency centres.

Pompier (firefighter) etymologically comes from the concept of pumping (water) and refers to the manual pumps that were originally used.