A fire company from Marcy-Charbonnières in the Rhône region of France. Image from justicier69.

In France, they are known as sapeurs-pompiers. You would dial 18, or the European standard number of 112 for an emergency. They are organized, supervised and trained by the French Ministry of the Interior; specifically, they fall under the Civil Defence 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.

The ambulance doesn’t look too different, and in fact since firefighters are required also to be EMTs in France, they also often integrate the two into one vehicle capable of managing both to a reasonable degree.

Updated: May 29, 2008.