SDIS 56 -Service Départemental d'Incendie et de Secours- / Morbihan's Fire and Rescue Department

SDIS was official for each department of France in 1955. So each department has is own SDIS. Since February 6th 1992, the SDIS has became the only unit which manage and handle all staffs, fire and rescue apparatus and finances means of the department.

SDIS is formed of : CODIS -Centre Opérationnel Départemental d'Incendie et de Secours- (Departmental Coordination Center of Fire and Emergency Medical Services), CTA -Centre de Traitement de l'Alerte- (Handling Center of Alert), SSSM - Service de Santé et de Secours Médical- (Health and Emergency Medical Services), firefighters corps. Each SDIS has once CODIS but can have one or severals CTA. In Morbihan's SDIS there is only one CTA, in the city called Vannes (the main city of the department about administrative service like a capital for a country).

Roles of each SDIS organization : 

• CODIS deals with relations between city authority, departmental authority and all others public or private organizations taking part in rescue operations. It knows all the time in each fire station how many equipments and which one is ready to reply to a call alert (thank to a special network). Of course if it's needed for a rescue operations near of the border with another department, CODIS can ask to launch staffs and equipments form this other department and it will manage them.
• CTA receives the call alert (coming from a phone line or cellphone which is in the department Morbihan), then it launches staffs and equipments means needed. During all the rescue operations, CTA listens and replies to radio messages of firefighters ; if it's needed, it launches more staffs and equipments means. It informs CODIS what happens about the rescue operations.
• SSSM is formed of doctors, nurses, veterinarians and pharmacists. They can work only for the SSSM or both of SSSM and civil medical/vet services. They both intervene in rescue operations and in watching over the health (physical and mental) of firefighters the rest of the time (before being 38 years old we have a medical checkup once every two years, after being 38 years old we have it once every year).
• Firefighters corps is formed of professional and volunteer firefighters. Professionals received a pay and volunteers received an indemnity. The indemnity is calculated in accordance with the time we are on duty during the month ; its value by hour depends on our rank (for example, mine -the lower rank- is $10.69 by hour during an intervention on a scene, $0,96 by hour during the time i'm on duty with my page outside of the fire station, $8,01 by hour during the time i'm on duty at the fire station). In Morbihan there are 319 professionals firefighters and 2473 volunteers firefighters. Firefighters corps is divided into three categories of fire stations depending of the number of vehicles (so firefighters) being able to  reply to call alert in the same time.

Categories of fire stations :

• CSP -Centre de Secours Principal- (main fire station) has to be able to reply in the same time to call alerts with one fire engine (6 firefighters), two ambulances (3 firefighters each), one other vehicle as ladder (2 firefighters)/engine against country fire (4 firefighters)/engine for car crash (3 firefighters) ...
• CS -Centre de Secours- (fire station) has to be able to reply in the same time to call alerts with one fire engine (6 firefighters) or one ambulance (3 firefighters) plus one other vehicle as ladder (2 firefighters)/engine against country fire (4 firefighters)/engine for car crash (3 firefighters) ...
• CPI -Centre de Première Intervention- (fire station for first intervention) has to be able to reply to call alert with one vehicle. Most of time this fire station is in small towns and it has only two vehicles as a car with ambulance equipment except the stretcher (2 or 3 firefighters), an engine against country fire (4 firefighters) or an kind pickup for various operations.