The only other military fire brigade is Marseilles "Marins pompiers"[0] that are a branch of the french Navy but I believe it to be standard practice in all fire brigades in France of which almost of all them are civilian.
Morals aside, it kind of make sense from an economical standpoint: a single guy dies, that's sad. A father of four dies, that's sad and the community has to support four orphans...
Controversial opinion: making that call to save living creatures is fine in my personal moral compass. Make that call for a building, be it symbolic and of rich cultural significance, not so much.
As long as nobody is in danger, do everything to save it but if it burns to the ground, it can be rebuilt.
A lost life and its consequences cannot.
I was, honestly, furious, when I heard the commander chose to send his men into the northern tower simply to save a pile of rocks....
> I was, honestly, furious, when I heard the commander chose to send his men into the northern tower simply to save a pile of rocks....
No one entered that building against their will. Quite the opposite, I'm sure (speaking from personal experience), the crews on scene would have been frustrated had they been told they had to stay out.
If it helps, consider it an extreme sport (in fact, firefighting is quite a bit safer than many sports). Firefighting often amounts to people engaging in what is arguably "optional" activities, for reasons that aren't necessarily clear from a purely rational standpoint. The actual reasons are a combination of many factors. There is certainly a desire to preserve property (especially when that property is irreplaceable), but there is also the adrenaline rush of working inside a burning structure, the camaraderie among the crews, etc.
Historical context and original artifacts cannot be simply rebuilt. This is not an office complex or a scientific lab or some other property that has material value but consists of fungible parts. Original historical artifacts of this type are literally irreplaceable.
If they are destroyed, they are lost to every future human being from now until the end of the universe. Even with time discounting, that's a great cultural loss. Should we risk lives to preserve historical & cultural heritage? Yes, absolutely.
Or, perhaps cynically, being one of the most visited monument in the world, it has a non-negligible economic value for Paris and France. Is that worth a few lives?
But a mission like that is going to be executed best by taking volunteers. So yes, in theory, they were under command authority, but in practice what happened was exquisite teamwork, with some members of the team accepting exceptional risk because of the stakes. The fire chief is an excellent leader to be able to quickly weigh the stakes and accept the risk, because the consequences of failure would have landed on him in a crushing way (professional ruin, personal guilt for the suffering of survivors, etc).
Thankfully the stakes are very rarely so high, and courage of this calibre is rarely called upon.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Fire_Brigade