The North West of England – the second busiest region in the country for 999 calls to the fire and rescue service – took a step nearer this week to being a part of the new national network of fire control centres when fire minister Sadiq Khan officially handed over its new regional centre to the fire authorities.
North West Fire Control Company – wholly owned by the five fire and rescue authorities in the region – is now responsible for running the building. They will now be organising project work, as well as facilitating training and familiarisation events for fire and rescue service staff at the control centre. The control centre should become fully operational in 2011 to serve Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside.
At present, there are 46 separate standalone control rooms in England, relying on differing technologies and operating procedures. The North West regional control centre will be part of a nationally linked network of nine control centres which will be able to automatically back up each other in times of increased call pressure or failure.
Speaking of the current control rooms which will eventually be replaced by the new regional control centres, Mr Khan said:
“The five control rooms in the North West, like the other 41 in England, are operated by highly professional and committed staff and we are all grateful to them. However, few of England’s control rooms – including those in the North West – have the best technology that is now available to help control operators and firefighters do their job helping to save lives.”
Meanwhile, the government has reported that 3,000 vehicles – one third of fire appliances in England – have now been fitted with new digital Firelink radios. These allow fire and rescue services the ability to communicate with police and ambulance command centres. The new equipment will also provide firefighters with clearer voice communications.
The Firelink system has already been installed in current control rooms, and so becomes operational as soon as equipment is installed in vehicles. The systems will transfer to the new regional control centres by 2012.
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