by George Potter
I recently attended a technical committee meeting on new firefighting technologies held on the premises of the French Fire Service’s Officers Training Academy near Marseille. This several-acre facility is the core center for command-level training for all of France’s public fire service officers, from small-village volunteer brigades up to the Paris brigade staff.
Public fire protection is covered by civil service employees distributed throughout the country in a multitiered structure which begins at the local or “prefecture” level (a French administrative area). These local governments are responsible for organizing and administering the local fire and rescue services, which, according to area, population, hazards and other factors, can be staffed by paid public service personnel or by paid-on-call volunteers. Higher up in the organizational structure, the responsibilities rise through the regional or department level (there are 100 departments, including the island of Corcega, similar to the states in the United States). Overall national command and organization are within the Interior Ministry.
Although each brigade in responsible for organization, resources, and training, all officers, whether they serve in a small village, one-engine volunteer fire department or are soldiers in the army brigade that protects Paris, must attend the Officers Academy for initial training as well as ongoing refresher or specialized courses, senior command staff training, and instructor training.
At this time, there are some 200,000 volunteer firefighters in France, mostly in rural regions, and 30,000 public service firefighters staffing fire departments in larger towns and cities. There are three exceptions, however:
- The French Army assumed protection of the nation’s capital in 1811 per a decree by Napoleon, and its 8,500 staff, commanded by a brigadier general, is Europe’s largest municipal fire department.
- The Marseille brigade, established initially in 1719, is staffed by some 1,750 French Navy personnel, under the command of a rear admiral.
- There are also some 1,800 military personnel assigned to the Special Services Division, which handles specific emergency situations requiring highly qualified technical operations, or those with sensitive conditions.
- In the ranks of the French fire services, some 3,000 women are serving in a wide range of duties, many in on-the-line firefighting positions as well as command slots.
The Officers Academy was established in 1977 near Paris, but in 2004 was transferred to its present location just outside of Aix-en-Provence, some 20 miles inland from Marseille. Here, confirmed officer candidates receive their initiation into command functions. During the first week of September, when our technical group was present, at least six distinct groups of officers, candidates, and higher ranks were going through their paces in different classrooms, not to mention those attending practical courses at the newly inaugurated practice campus (more on this later). This academy has an annual budget of nearly $18 million and is directly responsible to the Civil Protection Directorate of the Interior Ministry. Staffing consists of some 140 persons, from management through various levels of instructors to vehicle mechanics and kitchen personnel (meals, by the way, were great!)
The French fire service takes training very seriously, from recruit entry-level through senior-command positions. This mentality has made some of its operational units among the best in Europe, and possibly the world. For example, most European fire services look to the French wildland fire operational structures and procedures as references, since the country has millions of acres of farmlands, dense forests, and nearly inaccessible mountain regions (the Alps).
Prior to assuming the presidency of France, Nicolas Sarkozy was the interior minister, responsible for national internal security and safety, border security, national and local police, and national fire and rescue services. During that period, he approved a proposal from certain politically inspired “specialists” that prohibited French firefighters from training in “excessively hostile environments” a direct prohibition to participating in flashover training exercises in prepared shipping containers. Many senior fire service commanders were astonished at this decree, since they considered this practical training essential. Several months later, six young Paris brigade firefighters were caught inside a raging structural fire and lost their lives in what investigators described as a form of flashover. One of the now president’s first orders was to rescind that prohibition and issue a new order requiring ALL French career firefighters, both line firefighters and officers, to go through a standardized flashover course by 2010.
French firefighters receive recruit training at several training centers in various parts of the country. At these centers. the recruits go through a basic course of at least two months that presents topics such as fire combat, rescue, and first aid. From there, they are assigned to local fire brigades (normally in or near their hometowns), where they continue advanced basic training. Some new firefighters–who may be assigned to areas with severe industrial hazards or heavy rural-urban interface–may be sent to specialized training centers for further specific training before assignment to their brigades. Advanced intervention training may be delivered in their local stations, or they may attend these courses at specific centers for hazmat, high-angle rescue, road traffic accident intervention, and so forth.
During their assignments, supervisors are always on the lookout for potential leaders; when these candidates are initially selected in their departments, their histories are sent to the National Officers Academy for further examination and eventual approval or rejection. Once a candidate is approved for promotion and officer training, it’s off to Aix-en-Provence for several weeks of theoretical and practical training in incident command, fire service management, and specialized operational subjects.
This year, the new practical operations facility was opened just about midway between Aix-en-Provence and Marseille. This purpose-built center is composed of a variety of mock-ups simulating multistory buildings, underground situations, high-angle rescue situations, a propane gas-fueled container for confined space fire and flashover operations training, a several-hundred-yard multilane mock-up for road traffic accident intervention training, and several hazmat simulators for rail or road transport accidents and industrial facility incidents.
One of the unique features of this center is the several-thousand-square foot garage housing the center’s fleet of fire engines. The fleet includes eight pumpers, two 100-foot aerial ladders, two traffic incident equipment vans, a hazmat incident truck, and a host of command and support vehicles, including a 40-passenger bus for student transport, as well as personal protective equipment, SCBA recharge apparatus, hose, and auxiliary material. The only “negative” aspect of the new facility is that it is within the confines of a natural reserve, which impedes the possibilities of using smoke-emitting solid or liquid fuels for exercises. Propane gas systems have been installed in several of the operations simulators so that participants can at least “feel the heat” of the exercise fires. All the vehicles, turnout gear, SCBAs, and other materials are very recent and in first-class shape.
The pumpers are typical European configurations–extended six- to eight-seat commercial chassis (French Renault, like Macks without the bulldog) with a 500-gallon-per-minute (gpm), rear-mount low pressure (up to 250 psi) pump; fiberglass tank with 500 or 600 gallons; a small foam tank connected to a discharge-side foam mixer; roller-shuttered lateral compartments for rolled sections; diverse diameter hose; SCBAs; and other tools and equipment. One element of particular interest was that all handlines–1, 1 ¾- and 2-inch nozzles–were TFTs.
A common aspect of the center’s intervention exercises is that the participants assigned to a specific exercise in which predetermined vehicles and materials are to be employed are all grouped inside the garage at the start of the exercise, as they would be in their own fire stations. The evolution of the exercises unfolds as follows: receipt and confirmation of “incident” information, response from the “fire station” to the scene (via hilly and winding roads), arrival at the scene, size-up, incident plan, intervention and resolution of the situation, followed by on-scene evaluation and critique with the course instructor.
Instructors at the officers training facilities are all officers drawn from brigades all over France and recognized for their unique qualities as fire service leaders and their capacity to communicate their knowledge to future officers. It is expected that when the two Aix-en-Provence centers are fully operational at the beginning of next year, some 600 trainees will be able to participate simultaneously in diverse training programs during any given day. During 2006 and 2007, personnel presented more than 145,000 hours of training in command and special operations.
George H. Potter is a practicing fire protection specialist who has lived in Spain for the past 45 years. He served as an Anne Arundel County, Maryland, volunteer firefighter with the Riva Volunteer Fire Department and the Independent Hose Company in Annapolis and as an ambulance driver with the Wheaton (MD) Rescue Squad. He served six years in the United States Air Force as firefighter, apparatus driver/operator, and crew chief. He has been involved in fire protection system installation, mobile fire apparatus design, and construction and fire safety training. He is a Spain certified as a fire service instructor and a hazmat specialist and is a member of the Board of Governors of the Spanish firefighters’ association ASELF.
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Subject: International fire services, firefighter training, officer training, fire service comparison
