« Spires & Steeples Challenge Event 19 October 2008 | Main | Dunston Twinning Association Autumn 2008 »
September 5, 2008
999 fire and rescue calls in the East Midlands
Fire and rescue service control rooms will have the ultimate back-up at times of high demand from a new initiative which launches in the East Midlands next autumn.
Over the next two years, the existing control rooms in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire will gradually come together in a brand new building.
There the staff will be trained and equipped with the latest technology to co-ordinate emergency fire services across all five counties, giving them vital capacity to support major incidents across the whole country if necessary.
Nine Regional Control Centres (RCCs) are being built across England, and the East Midlands centre in Castle Donington, Leicestershire will be one of the first to 'go live' under this new Government initiative.
The centres have been designed to streamline and synchronise the 999 control room functions of all fire and rescue services, providing a co-ordinated response to national disasters such as terrorist incidents, widespread flooding or a major fire on a similar scale to Buncefield.
Staff will have the same equipment, they will work to the same procedures, they will have access to the same information and their systems will be networked. The information at their fingertips means that it won't matter whether the incident is five miles, or 300 miles away, and they will be able to scale-up their operations and provide support wherever it is needed.
The East Midlands control room operators will receive all 999 calls to fire and rescue services in the five counties. The technology available will immediately tell them where the caller is ringing from and which fire appliances, with the correct equipment on board, can reach the scene most quickly.
Firefighters will be advised of the quickest route to the incident via in-cab computers that will tell them the known risks and hazards in the building or the locality, procedures for dealing with the type of incident and details of the nearest water supplies.
Cllr Darrell Pulk, Chair of East Midlands Fire and Rescue Control Centre, said: "Control staff working from this brand new building will form a vital link between the public, firefighters and an array of high-tech equipment, helping to streamline our emergency response and serve our communities better.
"The RCC holds the key to fire and rescue service emergency operations of the future as we will be able to work together more effectively in times of national emergency, providing immediate support to each other and a resilience that will help to protect the whole country."
The existing control room at Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service will be the first to transfer its calls to the RCC towards the end of 2009. This will be followed, at intervals, by the control room functions from Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire, to complete by summer 2010.
The remaining eight national Regional Control Centres should all be fully operational in 2012.
Anyone wishing to find out more about the East Midlands Regional Control Centre can call a member of the team on 01332 815369 or email emrccenquiries@lfrs.org.
For further information about this article, or for photographs to illustrate, please contact:
Liz Reeson, Communications Advisor, East Midlands Regional Control Centre,
on 0115 967 5889, or email elisabeth.reeson@notts-fire.gov.uk .
Leave a comment