French Red Plan - Distribution of The Responsibilities

Distribution of The Responsibilities

The préfet of the département (or the préfet de police for Paris and its suburbs) is the director of rescue operations (DOS: directeur des opérations de secours). He starts the red plan; usually, the red plan is started by the firefighter or medical dispatch and then officialized by the préfet.

The chief officer of the local fire and rescue department (SDIS: service départemental d'incendie et de secours) is the "commander of the rescue operations" (COS: commandant des opérations de secours). He is assisted by the "director of fire and rescue" (DSIS: directeur des secours incendie et sauvetage), and by the "director of medical rescue" (DSM: directeur des secours médicaux). The DSM is usually the chief-physician of the firefighters or the director of samu (French EMS).

The main resources are the firefighters and Samu, but other organisations can contribute, such as the first aid associations (e.g. French Red Cross, volunteers of the civil protection/FNCP), who can contribute to the non-medical evacuations or deal with the relative emergencies, light wounded people and logistic for psychological aid (CUMP: cellule d'urgence médico-psichologique).