The brigade is one of two fire services in France that is part of the armed forces, with the other being the Marseille Naval Fire Battalion (BMPM). It is a unit of the French Army's Engineering Arm ("l'arme du génie") and the firefighters are therefore sappers ("sapeurs", thus "sapeurs-pompiers"). With 8,550 firefighters, it is the largest fire service in Europe and the third largest urban fire service in the world, after the Tokyo Fire Department and New York City Fire Department. Its motto is ""Save or Perish"" (French ""Sauver ou périr"").