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Fire Control

There are are 46 Control Rooms in England, including one at Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service's headquarters. FiReControl is a national Government project being delivered regionally to create nine new regional Control Centres replacing the existing system.

Fire Control Rooms were reviewed in 2000 as part of the Government's programme of reform and modernisation in the national Fire Service. In addition to this, an independent review of the Fire Service in 2002 was published entitled 'The Future of the Fire Service Reducing Risk, Saving Lives'. Following this, in 2003, the Government published their White Paper entitled 'Our Fire and Rescue Service' which recommended that the Fire and Rescue Service move to a network of Regional Control Centres.

Why is the existing Control Room system changing?

Resilience - Fire and Rescue Services need to be equipped to tackle everything from terrorists attacks to environmental disasters. Each Control Centre must fulfil a robust set of criteria to demonstrate they meet security and resilience requirements which are now necessary. Each new Regional Control Centre will be accredited.
Best practice - currently Control Centres operate differently from each other in terms of structure, training, systems, technology, processes etc. However, the new Regional Control Centres will all operate consistently using best practice from current Control Centres.
Networking - Regional Control Centres need to operate as a resilient network, which has the capacity to provide fallback support should any Regional Control Centre cease to be operational.

What new services will FiReControl provide?

Caller location - a member of the public calling 999 and asking for the fire service will be identified automatically saving time.
Satellite positioning - this will tell Control Operators which fire appliances, with the correct equipment on board, have the shortest travel time to an incident.
Computer-aided systems - this will enable staff to locate and mobilise the nearest available apprpriate resources automatically, using data-transmission
In cab displays - firefighters on their way to an incident will have constantly updated information including:
- A map showing the quickest route to the incident;
- Details of known risks and hazards in the building and/or the locality;
- Floor plans and access details;
- The location of the nearest hydrants and water supplies;
- Relevant standard operating procedures for the type of incident concerned i.e. how to deal with particular types of chemical or how to dismantle particular types of car.

What stage is FiReControl at?
FiReControl was set up in 2004 by a large national project team within Communities and Local Government. Under the current planning assumptions the first Regional Control Centre's will go live in spring 2011, with the full system expected to be in place by the end of 2012.

In the North West, our Regional Control Centre will be based at Lingley Mere Business Park, Great Sankey, Warrington, Cheshire.

More information
For more information about the national FiReControl project please visit www.communities.gov.uk/fire/resilienceresponse/firecontrol/.

Last update: 13/06/2011 09:12:00