The departmental fire and rescue service must have within five years of the promulgation of the loi n° 96-369 du 3 mai 1996 relative aux services d’incendie et de secours :
1° A departmental fire and rescue operational centre responsible for coordinating the operational activity of the fire and rescue services at department level;
2° One, or, if necessary, several alert processing centres, responsible for receiving, processing and possibly redirecting requests for assistance.
The emergency call handling systems of the fire and rescue services are interconnected with the call reception and regulation centres of the units participating in the emergency medical assistance service, known as S.A.M.U., as well as with the call reception systems intended for the police services.