Faxing the SDIS: ERP File and Safety Visit

Short answer: you never call emergency services by fax — 18 and 112 remain the only emergency numbers. On the other hand, the groupement prévention (fire-prevention unit) of a service départemental d'incendie et de secours (departmental fire and rescue service, SDIS), the bureau prévention (municipal prevention office) of a town hall, or the secretariat of the commission de sécurité (safety commission) very commonly accept by fax anything belonging to the administrative file of an établissement recevant du public (premises open to the public, ERP): additional material for a request for an opinion, a certificate confirming a requirement has been met, a periodic inspection contract, a works schedule, the appointment of a safety officer, or a reply to a letter setting out the follow-up to a visit. The golden rule: state at the top the file number, the ERP classification (type and category) and the exact address of the premises, address the named service — not "the fire brigade" in general — and keep the transmission receipt, the only document capable of proving that a requirement was met before the cut-off date.

Two worlds never to be confused

An SDIS wears two completely separate hats, and this is the source of just about every misdirected transmission.

On one side, the operational world: the emergency call-handling centre (centre de traitement de l'alerte, CTA-CODIS), the fire and rescue stations, the appliances. That world receives nothing by fax from the public. A fire starting, a gas leak, a person in distress: 18, 112, or 114 for deaf and hard-of-hearing people (by text message and written conversation). A fax is only read when someone walks past the machine — in other words, never at the minute you would need it.

On the other side, the administrative and prevention world: the fire-prevention unit, the forward-planning service, the building-risk management service, the administrative secretariat, the service de santé et de secours médical (health and medical rescue service, SSSM) for fitness examinations of volunteer firefighters, and sometimes a training office. These services work on files, with deadlines, registration numbers and letters. That is where the fax retains a use: it time-stamps a transmission the same day, without depending on a submission portal that does not always exist at departmental level.

Who handles what: the decision chain

Understanding who decides avoids faxing the wrong floor. The code de la construction et de l'habitation (Construction and Housing Code) gives the authorisation to open premises open to the public to the mayor (or to the prefect for certain premises, including high-rise buildings and some category 1 ERPs). The SDIS itself authorises nothing: it issues a technical opinion and sits on the commission consultative départementale de sécurité et d'accessibilité (departmental advisory commission for safety and accessibility, CCDSA), or on its sub-commissions and district commissions.

In practical terms, for a café-restaurant with a capacity of 120 refurbishing its dining room:

1. The works authorisation file (with the safety notice) is submitted to the town hall.
2. The town hall forwards it to the SDIS prevention service for an opinion, and to the body responsible for accessibility.
3. The commission issues a favourable opinion, a favourable opinion with requirements, or an unfavourable opinion.
4. At the end of the works, an acceptance visit may be scheduled.
5. The mayor signs the order authorising opening or continued operation.

The fax comes in mainly at steps 2 and 4, when a prevention officer writes: "please send us the approved body's report on the electrical installations before the 30th of the month". That sentence is exactly the moment when a fax beats ordinary post: it arrives the same day and leaves a time-stamped trace. On the principle of the written trace, the reasoning is the same as for other authorities — we set it out in detail in our article on the fax cover sheet that counts as proof.

The vocabulary to use

A badly labelled file goes straight to the bottom of the pile. The terms used by prevention officers come from the order of 25 June 1980 (fire safety regulations for ERPs):

• Type: the nature of the activity — N for restaurants and drinking establishments, M for shops, L for performance and meeting halls, R for education and training establishments, U for care facilities, J for facilities housing elderly or disabled people, O for hotels, X for indoor sports facilities.
• Category: from 1 (more than 1,500 people) to 5 (below the thresholds triggering full obligations), determined by the number of members of the public and staff.
• Theoretical capacity: calculated according to the rules for the type, not according to the number of chairs set out.
• Requirement (prescription): a demand formulated by the commission, to be satisfied within an announced deadline.
• Lifting of a reservation (levée de réserve): the act by which you prove the requirement has been satisfied.

Using these exact words at the top of the cover sheet, together with the file number or the letter reference (always printed at the top left of prevention letters), saves several days.

What is actually faxed, document by document

The most frequent transmissions, in the order in which you see them coming out of the prevention units' machines:

• Completed safety notice: the document describing the structural arrangements, the exits, the smoke extraction and the firefighting means. It is often sent a second time after a request for clarification.
• Plans: site plan, floor plans, evacuation plan. Beware: an A0 plan sent by fax becomes illegible — fax a cropped view of the area concerned, with a readable scale, and announce that the full plan will follow by post or by submission.
• Approved body reports (electrical, smoke extraction, lifts, fire safety systems): at a minimum the conclusion page and the list of observations.
• Periodic inspection contracts: extinguishers, fire safety system, fire doors, emergency lighting.
• Staff training certificates for using firefighting equipment and for evacuation.
• Copies of the relevant pages of the safety logbook, required by article R. 143-44 of the Construction and Housing Code: evacuation drills, inspection dates, works carried out.
• Letter replying to the visit follow-up, point by point, using the exact numbering of the requirements.
• Appointment of a safety officer or of a new operator where the business has been sold.

One very practical tip about the logbook: many operators keep it on loose sheets, which get lost before the visit. A commercially available bound-page ERP safety logbook solves the problem for a few euros and makes a good impression on the prevention officer, because it shows continuous record-keeping.

Preparing a legible transmission

A fax remains a low-resolution black-and-white transmission. Grey screens on plans, photographs and faint stamps all disappear. Three habits:

• Scan in high-contrast black and white, not greyscale, at 200 or 300 dpi. A document scanner with an automatic feeder is a game changer when you regularly send twenty-page reports.
• Number the pages "1/14, 2/14": if the transmission cuts out, the recipient knows what to ask for.
• Check that the attachments are the right way up and in the order announced on the cover sheet.

We have devoted a whole article to the settings that prevent a grey, illegible fax: preparing a PDF that goes through. The assemble a PDF file tool also lets you group the safety notice, cropped plans and certificates into a single file, in the order you want, before sending.

The deadlines that really matter

The word "deadline" covers three different realities here.

The two-month appeal deadline is the only genuine cut-off, and it is not played out before the SDIS but before the tribunal administratif (administrative court). If a closure order or a refusal of opening has to be challenged, the channel is no longer the prevention unit's fax: it is Télérecours citoyens, with the fax as a tightly framed fallback — see our article Faxing the administrative court: still admissible?.

Requirement deadlines, for their part, are met with method rather than with law. An erasable annual wall planner displayed in the plant room, on which you note inspection due dates and requirement deadlines, prevents discovering an oversight the day before the visit.

Finding the right fax number

An SDIS is often a departmental headquarters, two or three territorial groups, a prevention unit, and dozens of fire stations. The fax of the village fire station is not the fax of the prevention officer handling the file.

In order of reliability:

1. The letter you received: the header or footer of the visit follow-up letter almost always carries the fax number of the issuing service. This is the safest source, because it is up to date by definition.
2. The SDIS website (sdisXX.fr or a page on the departmental council's site), prevention or contacts section.
3. The government directory on service-public.fr and the public services register on data.gouv.fr, which publish the contact details of SDISs and prefectures.
4. The town hall's prevention office for category 5 ERPs: in many municipalities it is the office that centralises requests and passes them on to the SDIS.
5. A quick phone call to check before sending: "what is the fax number of the prevention unit?". Thirty seconds that prevent a lost transmission.

Our directory of official fax numbers lists the contact details of French public bodies, and the verification method is set out in Finding the right fax number for a public body. A decommissioned fax number returns no explicit error: you get a flat failure, sometimes after several minutes, without knowing whether the line has been cancelled or the machine was busy. Hence the importance of keeping the transmission report, and of calling back if it fails.

The case of events and gatherings

Organising a flea market, a concert under a marquee, a fireworks display or a road race involves several authorities at once. The SDIS is consulted, but it is never the point of entry.

• The declaration or authorisation is filed with the town hall, or with the prefecture for sporting events on the public highway and large gatherings.
• The first-aid cover arrangement (dispositif prévisionnel de secours, DPS) is ordered from an approved civil protection association, in accordance with the national framework set out in the order of 7 November 2006 and its risk assessment grid.
• Marquees, tents and structures fall under type CTS, with an extract from the structure's safety logbook and an erection certificate to be provided.
• The site layout plan showing fire service access, hydrants and exits is often requested in addition: this is typically what you fax to the prevention service at the officer's request.

For an organiser, the fax is used here to get a document requested ten days before the event delivered the same day — an organiser's public liability insurance certificate, a structure hire contract, a list of race marshals. A set of standard-compliant high-visibility vests is, incidentally, one of the physical items you will be asked to have arranged for stewarding, alongside evacuation signage.

Writing a letter that gets through

Prevention officers handle dozens of files a week. An effective transmission fits on one cover sheet and one body page.

The cover sheet must carry: the named recipient (service + name of the prevention officer if known), the sender with a phone number and an email address for follow-up, the file reference, the full designation of the premises (trading name, address, type, category, capacity), the subject in one line, and the total number of pages.

The body follows the numbering of the letter received, requirement by requirement:

Requirement no. 3 — "Have the electrical installations inspected by an approved body". Satisfied: report Q18 from company X dated 14 October 2026, attached on pages 4 to 9. No major observations. The two minor observations were dealt with on 20 October (invoice attached, page 10).

This format, cold and factual, is the one that gets a file closed fastest. End with an opening sentence: "The originals are available to you and will be presented at the next visit."

The cover sheet generator produces this first page with the expected details. And because a prevention file is built up over time, a ring binder with dividers for archiving dedicated to the premises — one divider per requirement, one per approved body report — makes the next visit far less stressful.

Frequently asked questions

Can you report a fire to the fire brigade by fax?

No, under no circumstances. The alert goes through 18, 112 from anywhere in the European Union, or 114 by text message and written conversation for deaf and hard-of-hearing people. No fax is monitored in real time in an emergency call-handling centre.

Can the SDIS close down my premises?

No. The SDIS issues a technical opinion. The decision to open, to continue operating or to close belongs to the mayor (or to the prefect depending on the case), by order, following an adversarial procedure. It is that order, and not the opinion, that can be challenged before the administrative court within two months.

Do you have to send the originals after the fax?

For approved body reports and certificates, yes: the fax saves time on the deadline, while the original or a good-quality digital copy consolidates the file. Say so explicitly on the cover sheet ("originals sent today by post"), which avoids a reminder.

Does my category 5 ERP fall within these rules?

Category 5 premises without sleeping accommodation are generally not subject to mandatory periodic visits, but they remain subject to the safety rules and may be inspected. Requests usually go through the town hall's prevention office, whose fax is sometimes that of the planning department — a point covered in our article Fax and the town hall: planning, civil status, deadlines.

How long should transmission receipts be kept?

At least until the next visit, so two to five years depending on the frequency applicable to your classification, and longer if a requirement has been the subject of a dispute. The transmission report is the only document that attests to the date of sending.

Does a fax replace the safety logbook?

No. The logbook is a document kept on the premises, available for the commission to consult. The fax is used to send extracts from it, never to do without it.

In summary

• Never an emergency by fax: 18, 112, 114. The fax only has a use in the administrative and prevention sphere.
• The right recipient is the SDIS prevention unit or the town hall's prevention office, identified from the header of the letter received — not "the fire brigade".
• Always restate the file number, type, category, capacity and address of the premises.
• Reply requirement by requirement, using the numbering of the visit follow-up letter.
• Large-format plans are cropped before sending, and scans made in high-contrast black and white.
• The genuinely final cut-off is the two-month appeal deadline against an order, before the administrative court — not before the SDIS.
• Keep every transmission receipt: that is what will prove a requirement was satisfied on time.