At the end of World War I, the high number of civilian casualties highlighted the need to upgrade the protection of people during conflicts.

In 1938, at the dawn of World War II, the French government developed civil defense (défense passive) policies.

Its volunteers also led awareness campaigns on several topics such as first aid, domestic accidents, HIV or road safety.

[6] From 1991 to 2009, Louis Lareng, the founder of the French emergency medical service, was elected president of the national federation of civil protection.

[11] The French Civil protection has a government certification to carry 4 types of missions:[10] Provisional first aid stations (dispositifs prévisionnels de secours) are established during cultural, political or sportive events to provide medical first response to the participants.

[12] There are different configurations to adapt to the scale of the event:[13] The list below gives examples of notable first aid stations carried by the French Civil Protection: The French Civil Protection delivers public basic first aid training (prévention et secours civiques de niveau 1, or PSC1).

[16] The French Civil Protection is entitled to carry a broad scope of humanitarian and support missions[10] including assistance to the homeless and post-disaster response.

French Civil Protection teams participated in the emergency response after the 1999 MV Erika sinking,[18] the 2001 Toulouse chemical factory explosion[19] and the 2015 Germanwings Flight 9525 crash.

[12] During the November 2015 Paris attacks, 130 first responders contributed to manage the crisis, to evacuate the victims to local hospitals, and to provide first aid to the witnesses.

[12] After the 2016 Nice truck attack, 162 volunteers provided emergency response and psychological first aid to the victims, their relatives and witnesses.

The vehicles are white, with a large orange line on which the Federation logo is displayed and the words "PROTECTION CIVILE" are written in blue.

The white, blue and orange top displays the logo and the words "PROTECTION CIVILE" on the back and on the right shoulder.