Gabon Fire-Fighters Brigade
Le Corps Des Sapeurs Pompiers

The municipal body of the sappers firemen of Libreville was created August 1st, 1966 by the Mr TCHICAYA LASSY, 1st Mayor of Libreville. Command entrusted to Captain kidney, a firefighter from Nice. August 1, 1975 saw the beginning of the cooperation with the BSPP: 2 young Gabonese officers were sent for training in Paris. On February 25, 1976 there caem the Gabonization of the post of Chief of body: Lieutenant NDONG the took command.

On July 1, 1977, the Gabonese Armed Forces integration resulted in 1 company (Libreville); rank of Army (army, air force and Navy); Command assumed by a Gabonese officer. August 15, 1986, creation of the center of rescue Franceville. March 22, 1989, creation of the center of the relief of Owendo. March 30, 1989, creation of the 1st and 2nd company. July 1, 1992, the captain IDIBA'IL BAMOISSI took command. March 12, 1998, creation of the 3rd company in Port-Gentil. August 15, 1999, the captain Major ENGOZOGO took command. September 15, 2000, Lieutenant Colonel Jean Louis AGAYAS took command. Outlook 2010, 1 company in each Chief City of province (6 additional companies).

The mission of the Corps Des Sapeurs Pompiers is the protection of people and goods throughout the national territory against the risk of fire, natural calamities, and other dangers and perils.

operational missions

• Aid to people and animals in difficulty,
• Assistance to the people in general and the wounded from the public road,
• Rescue in disasters of any kind (flood-fall-plane accident of railway, etc.).
• Drowning.

preventive missions

• Development of regulations in the fight against fire:
• Review and technical advice on permits in connection with the land registry,
• Various teaching for the benefit of the administrations or private communities (Emergency - Prevention - security - fire).

occasional missions

• Department of national defence, security and Immigration,
• Ministry of the Interior,
• Support of Camp of Armed Forces,
• Emergency medical assistance service (SAMU)
• Coverage of some events (football, cross, meetings, games...).

Under the noble professions which are to save lives, there is the fire brigade. Save or perish! Is their motto. Gabon counts some battalions here and there, especially in Libreville, Owendo, Port-Gentil and Franceville, but observers note the age of the barracks which date back to before the return to multiparty politics in 1990. It is not always easy therefore to exercise such a trade in a chaotic environment such as the Libreville neighborhoods, especially when they lack adequate equipment. Between the call and the intervention of firefighters, several problems arise:

• The one related to the location of the place of the victims in a real city without cadastral plan
• the availability of proper equipment given the complexity of some interventions including traffic accidents with vehicles carambola
• the rolling stock sometimes brushed the outside to deceive the vigilance of the authorities during military parades

It would be desirable for the government to think of construction of new barracks to give meaning to the optical proximity, especially in areas such as Nzeng-Ayong [the largest in Libreville]. Some provinces are still waiting for the arrival of firefighters.