Fire Engines Photos

The hose reel system on all French forest fire fighter pump tankers usually includes two different types of rear mounted reels, as on these two Unimogs.

One is a semi-rigid 23 mm hose reel, which can be operated from the rear step, or the roof, or as a walk-along line - all during pump-and-roll operations, as well as conventionally. It can also be very rapidly reeled in, if the truck needs to relocate on the fireground.

The second reel is flat 32 mm unlined hose, which becomes wet when operated, and can be safely used as a handline over terrain which has already been burning. This is the SOP when the trucks cannot get near enough to the fire due to the terrain, which happens very often in the rugged hills around Marseille.

Additional 32 mm hose is carried in the rear side lockers, so one truck can supply multiple lines. However, they usually need two or three of the four man crew to move them around quickly.

French fire services have developed some very well thought-out brush and forest firefighting tactics and equipment - and the BMPM are in the forefront. Sailors fighting fires by land and air - seems a bit ironocal?

In a fine example of military service co-operation, trainloads of BSPP members are rotated down to Marseille from Paris during the fire season to supply additional manpower to fight the brush fires, most of which usually occur between May and October.

Added by Rob Johnson on 25 November 2013.

These BMPM Gimaex medium off-road pump tankers have a pump rated at 1500 LPM at 15 AT and a 4000 lter tank, plus 60 liters of class A foam soluntion. The GVW is 13.5 tonnes.

The larger 6X6 Unimogs used by the BMPM - and also illustrted on this site - have the advantage of a much larger 7000 liter tank. This substantially extends their ability to operate autonomously, without leaving the fire face to replensish their tanks. I have seen both the 4X4 and 6X6 Unimogs being operated off road and they are both equally amazing!

Added by Rob Johnson on 03 December 2013.

I agree Rob about the cross country performance. As to the role of the military brigades in France, at least the situation never occurs where politics comes into the fore, as recently ( again ) in the UK.
I have long advocated a national fire service for the UK. A para military approach ensures the public are not placed at risk by industrial action. Also equipment can be purchased in bulk allowing massive savings.

Added by John Stott on 04 December 2013.

John,

Italy has had a national fire service since 1938, which was formed to overcome the problem of different cities having very different (and often inadequate) levels of fire protection.

The Vigili del Fueco has 28, 000 members, including a small number of volunteers, and provides municipal, forest, airport and port fire fighting resources, but does not operate the EMS service, which is provided by other agencies.

They respond to around 735, 000 calls a year, of which about half are fires. Fortunately, automatic fire alarms are still relatively uncommon in Italy, so there are only a few of these time-wasting calls.

In common with French nad German fire services, most service calls are handled by two members in a light van or utility vehicle, unless the call makes it clear that a pumper, ladder or tanker will be needed.

IVECO used to be the only supplier to the VdF, which made Italy a bit boring for a fire engine enthusiast. But more recently there has been a major effort to update the fleet, with purchases of Volvo and Mercedes Actros pumpers with BAI bodywork.

My favorite fire station is in Venice: it is a unique city fire station, because it has no land vehicles. The fleet comprises four fire boats, two of which are manned by the duty watch, with the other two available for recalled off-duty members if something more serious happens.

Among other European countries, Poland combined all their fire services in to a National Fire Service fairly recently. But there are still a very wide variety of different makes of appliances in use there. These include some older local brands as well as a few ex-British pump water tenders which I think may still be in service with volunteer stations there.

The two French military fire services do not routinely provide fire coverage outside Paris and Marseille, except under "mutual aid" to contiguous communities. But BSPP has has a "mobile column" protocol for decades. This will dispatch a fully-manned fleet of appliances to any major incident anywhere in France, or - now - to anywhere in Europe.

Added by Rob Johnson on 04 December 2013.

Thanks for that information Rob. If memory serves me it was Napoleon who founded the military brigades.
Poland is interesting, some who have worked for me have told me of their service. There is much 'legacy" equipment, rather like their military. However, overall they seem well organised.

Added by John Stott on 04 December 2013.

Rob, your last paragraph could use a more nuanced definition of "Paris". If we mean the city of Paris -- departement 75, basically inside the old city wall, the BSPP service area goes beyond that I nto some of the surrounding departements.

The wikipedia page for Paris Fire Brigade says "The brigade's main area of responsibility is the City of Paris and the surrounding départements of Seine-Saint-Denis, Val-de-Marne, and Hauts-de-Seine. It also serves the Centre Spatial Guyanais in Kourou, the Military Rocket Test Centre in Biscarosse, and the gas plant of Lacq-Artix. The other departments of metropolitan Paris have their own fire brigades."

The last three areas are quite far from Paris -- Kourou is even in South America.:-)

For US readers, it probably helps to think of French departements as roughly equivalent to American counties, so a useful working translation of SDIS is "county fire and rescue service".

Added by Michael Feldman on 05 December 2013.

The reorganization was several years ago. This was when the former Regiment, which covered only the old city of Paris (75), became the Brigade. This now included the contiguous Departments which constituted Greater Paris. The Brigade has three Batallions and over 70 fire stations, of which only around a quarter are in the former Regimental city area itself.

There is now some discussion of a further expansion of the Greater Paris area, which will presumably involve another reorganization to bring more areas into the BSPP zone of responsibility.

The Departmental structure was formed in Napoleonic times, and they vary considerably in area and population. But the SDIS, which are the departmental fire and rescue (EMS)services, are required to meet quite strict national standards and are directed by the Ministry of the Interior.

So there is much less variation in staffing, training, operating processes, equipment and apparatus than we have amongst county fire departments here. And there are no city fire departments in France, except for Paris and Marseille.


Added by Rob Johnson on 05 December 2013.

In the mid 09's while visiting Marigot, capitol of the French side of St Maarten in the Caribbean, I stopped in the Fire Station and a few of the firefighters identified themselves as part of the Marseilles Fire Brigade.

Added by Jeff Beall on 05 December 2013.

Hi Rob! I remember the unlined hose!Then I was a part-time firefighter, we used both 35 and 67 mm unlined hoses at forestfires! The good thing=no problem with watersupply. The bad thing=hard work to take them back to the station after the work was done!1 dry small hose=1 big wet hose!!

Anders F. Sweden.

Added by Anders Fallström on 09 September 2014.

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