The General Directorate of Civil Defence, part of the Ministry of Interior and Municipalities, protects people, property and the environment across all Lebanese territory. Its teams fight fires, carry out search and rescue, provide ambulance services and help communities prepare for emergencies. In an emergency, call 125.

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Establishment of the Civil Defence

• The Civil Defence was founded in 1945, following the Second World War.
• On 15 May 1956, under Law No. 45/67 issued by Parliament, its work began from a room at the Ministry of Defence and was limited to training and guidance.
• On 12 June 1959, Legislative Decree No. 159 made the Civil Defence a directorate and defined its duties.
• On 8 September 1961, Regulatory Decree No. 7563 was issued (later amended by Regulatory Decree No. 50 of 5 August 1967) to define the relationship between the Civil Defence and other official institutions and administrations.
• In 1974 the first operational unit was created and entrusted with firefighting, rescue and ambulance work. It kept developing and growing until the Civil Defence took its present form, with missions bound up with people’s daily lives.
• In 1979 the Civil Defence was attached to the Ministry of Interior under Law No. 6/79.
• On 4 August 1994 the Council of Ministers issued Decision No. 15 approving that the Directorate of Civil Defence become a General Directorate.
• On 8 May 2014 Law No. 289 was issued, amending several articles of Legislative Decree No. 50/67 of 5 August 1967 (the system and organisation of the Civil Defence). Its main provisions were:
  • reorganising the structure of the Civil Defence;
  • giving permanent status to wage-earners, contractors and volunteers;
  • applying public safety standards.

Missions of the Civil Defence

The missions of the Civil Defence cover all Lebanese territory and can be defined as follows:

• Providing civil protection for people, property and the environment, and preventing losses.
• Avoiding and confronting dangers that threaten public safety and limiting their consequences, in disasters, natural catastrophes and emergencies resulting from acts of war, and under the threat of war in all its forms. To this end, the Civil Defence has the right to train individuals in self-protection, and to ensure that public life continues normally in these situations by:
  • assigning residents the duties that civil defence requirements call for;
  • informing, guiding, advising and training citizens in civil defence work, and holding the necessary periodic drills;
  • evacuating and sheltering the population and providing for their livelihood, in coordination with the competent administrations and institutions, and evacuating dangerous and endangered places;
  • demolishing buildings at risk of collapse.
• Qualifying people to carry out the required tasks.
• Ensuring that the laws and regulations in force relating to all civil defence work are applied.
• Implementing official decisions in accordance with the legal and regulatory provisions in force.

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A message to citizens

The Civil Defence is from you and for you. Contribute to its work, follow its guidance and instructions, and listen to and act on announcements from the authorities.

We also remind citizens of Article 593 of the Penal Code: “Anyone who, through negligence, lack of caution or failure to observe laws or regulations, causes a fire to property belonging to others shall be punished by imprisonment for up to one year. If the offence is minor, the penalty shall not exceed three months.”

The Director General of Civil Defence stresses that all training courses held in schools, universities and civil society organisations, as well as the sea lifeguard course, are provided free of charge by the Directorate’s trainers. Experts assigned to investigate the causes of fires and accidents, to check the application of public safety standards in residential, industrial and commercial buildings, or to inspect buildings for Civil Defence licence approval, also carry out their work without any payment. To report any violation, please call the Complaints Office on 01/287125.