Control Operator blog

Fliss Hill works on A Watch in our Control Centre at our Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service Headquarters in Swinton. She has worked as a Control Operator for 11 years taking a variety of emergency calls from the public and co-ordinating the mobilisation of fire appliances to incidents. From dealing with road traffic accidents and serious fires to taking hoax calls and participating in training exercises, find out exactly what Fliss’ job involves by reading her blog.

May and June 2008 -  Our Control Room gets really busy when Manchester hosts the UEFA Cup final, there is a fire in a school classroom, a plane crashes into a tree and our firefighters are shot at with pellet guns…

Incidents
On 14th May 2008, I was on night duty when the UEFA Cup Final was held in Manchester between Zenit St. Petersburg and Rangers FC.  Everything was running smoothly until one of the big screens wouldn’t work and the fans started to get disgruntled. It was very busy in Control Room and and the Operations Room was manned by Officers (This was used to liaise with Police in their Gold Control which is used for major incidents/events).  We had to arrange for there to be four fire engines standing by at the fire stations close to the city centre incase of further trouble.

On 7th June 2008 I was on duty when Crossacres Primary School had a fire in a single storey classroom. There were four fire engines dealing with the incident and the Fire Investigation Team were mobilised to investigate the cause of the fire.

I was working a night shift on 15th June and the evening proved to be eventful with lots of unusual incidents including:

A light aircraft crashed at Barton Aerodrome.  The plane had crashed into a tree and landed on the car park.  The pilot had lacerations to his knees and was taken to hospital but luckily was discharged after treatment! 

We then received a call to a warehouse on fire at Green Lane, Eccles.  When the crews got there they informed us that it was actually a 40ft long barge on fire on the canal.  They requested the water incident unit (WIU) to attend which consists of a boat and trained swift water technicians. The whole barge was destroyed by fire. The fire was found to have been set deliberately.

On 19th June I was working a day shift and we took a call reporting that a horse had fallen into a 15ft ditch that had barbed wire in it. The fire crew used lines, salvage sheets, spine boards and manpower to rescue the 30 year old female horse called Molly from the ditch!

On 20th June (night duty) one of our fire crews was attacked by a group of youths with missiles and then they were shot at with a pellet gun. The windscreen on the fire engine was damaged but luckily there were no injuries to any of the firefighters.

New recruit
We have another new recruit on A Watch. Jo Bayliss started on the watch a few weeks ago after completing her training course successfully. Paula Roberts (another Crew Manager on A watch) is Jo’s mentor and is sitting with her and monitoring her as I did with Leah.

Leah is now counted in the watch numbers and is now able to take fire calls and radio messages without me monitoring her. This gives the operators more confidence in their ability as they make all the decisions themselves with the help of the people around if needed. Leah has just got her probationary workbook and will start working on that in the weeks to come.

Fliss Hill was away from work in April.

3rd to 30th March 2008 - There is a large fire in a Radcliffe Church, a house fire is caused by a tumble dryer fault, there is a crackdown on hoax callers and Lancashire Fire and Rescue Control Room pay a visit...
It’s been a busy few weeks in our Control Centre.  I have been assigned as Leah’s (our new recruit) mentor so I have been sitting with her for the last month she has been on the watch and giving her training, as well as monitoring all the fire calls and radio messages she has taken. She has settled in really well on the watch and has been very confident with her fire calls!

Incidents
We have had quite a few large fires while I have been on duty these last few weeks including a large fire during my night shift on 20th March 2008 at a Church in Radcliffe. There were five fire engines and two special appliances. The fire was quite severe and caused a partial collapse of the building.  When we are dealing with large fires in the control room it is very involved as we have to mobilise a large number of appliances and officers to the incident as well as informing other emergency services. We also take all the radio messages from the incidents and carry out any requests that we receive from the fire ground such as informing utilities companies, building inspectors etc.

On 7th March 2008 we received a call to a house fire and there were persons reported (this means that there are believed to still be people inside the building). The fire crews were in attendance in minutes but the casualty had managed to escape prior to their arrival. They were taken to hospital suffering from smoke inhalation and admitted as a precautionary measure. The cause of the fire was an electrical fault on the tumble dryer. If possible electrical appliances should be switched off when not in use.

On day duty on 15th March 2008 we received a call to a dog that had fallen down a steep embankment and was stranded down below in the River Irwell at Bury. We mobilised a fire crew from Bury to attend along with the water incident unit (inshore rescue boat and crew). Luckily they managed to rescue the dog using a ladder and everything was fine! Read more about the incident.

On 21st March 2008 I took a call from a member of the public to a car that had overturned and was on fire. Luckily the driver had managed to escape from the vehicle. He was treated by paramedics and conveyed to hospital suffering with shock. He was discharged after treatment with minor injuries! 

Training
On 15th March a new procedure was introduced to crack down on malicious callers. Now when a call is received by a mobile phone or private subscriber that proves to be a malicious/hoax call a letter is sent out to the address informing them that it is an offence under both the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 and the Telecommunications Act 1984 to knowingly make a false 999 call.  Upon conviction the penalty for this offence, currently, can be a fine of £5,000 and/or six months imprisonment.  Hopefully this will help to further reduce the number of malicious calls we receive in the Control room. 

We had a visit to Control on Wednesday 27th March by two members of the Lancashire Fire and Rescue Control Room. We have an agreement with them which states each county fire service will undertake call taking and mobilising responsibility in the case of either Control having to evacuate. The training undertaken was practicing taking motorway incidents for Lancashire area and mobilising appliances over the radio. The training went very smoothly and it was nice to meet operators from a different brigade.

I am away from work for a few weeks so revisit this page at the end of April to read my next blog!

11th - 27th February – A man burns himself trying to walk on a fire, a brick is thrown at a firefighter and the recruits finish their course...

Incidents
On night duty on 16th February we took a call to some rubbish on fire on a park. There were reports of youths in attendance at the incident. When the crew arrived they found a 23 year old man with burns to his feet. He had been trying to walk on the fire!

The same night duty we had another call to rubbish and tyres in the open with a large number of youths in the vicinity. When the crew arrived and dealt with the incident one of the youths actually threw a brick at a firefighter. Luckily though it missed.

During a day duty on 20th February I took a call to a girl stuck on an island in the middle of a frozen dam. I mobilised fire crews along with our water incident unit (inshore rescue boat and crew).  When they arrived and assessed the situation they decided that the best way to get the girl off the island was using the inflatable paths that they lay out across the ice.

On 24th February we took a call to two teenage girls trapped in playground baby swings. On arriving the crew found that the girls had managed to climb into the seats for a joke but then got wedged! With a bit of help the crew managed to release them without having to cause damage to the swings. 

Training course
Our recruits are now on the last week of their training course. It has flown by. They have all been working really hard and taking their exams and they have all passed. They have all been told which watches they are going on and start working with us next week. 

We have Leah starting on our watch. As a Crew Commander in Control one of my jobs is to monitor the recruit Fire Control Operators.  When Leah starts on the watch next tour I will be sitting with her for the first few weeks.  I will be plugged in and monitoring every fire call she takes and be there to help her with any problems or queries she has. Fire Control Operators have a two year probationary period which is the same as Firefighters. 

22nd January - 10th February - A man takes a dangerous shortcut across the motorway, a car crashes into a fire station and the new recruits settle in...
We have four watches in our Control Centre (A, B, C and D watch) and we work shifts in the control room similar to the firefighters (2 x 9 hour day shifts and 2 x 15 hour night shifts every 8 days).

On night duty on 31st January  we were asked by the Police to attend an incident of a man walking along the motorway. They thought he was possibly going to commit suicide.  After some investigations by the Police and our Fire Officer it emerged that the man was taking a very dangerous short cut!

Part of my job involves taping fire calls received in the Control Room to assist the police with their investigations into deliberate fires. On 4th February when I was on day duty I was asked by a Detective Sergeant to provide the incident log and all fire calls received (including duplicate calls) for a house fire that we attended due to it being what we call a possible 'deliberate ignition fire'.

We had an unexpected incident when I was on a night duty on 6th February.  I received a call from one of our fire stations to say that a car had driven into the side of the building!  Luckily the driver was not badly injured and there wasn’t much damage to the fire station!

The recruits in Control have just finished their fourth week of the training course so they’re over half way there!  They have been coming into the Control Room a lot more and have started carrying out a lot of the admin duties and dealing with radio messages from the fire crews attending the incidents. They are all settling in well and looking forward to starting work on a watch.

7th January 2008 – 21st January 2008 - A Chip pan fire, a man gets trapped under a gravestone and four new recruits start in Control...
Welcome to my first ever blog entry. I have worked in Control for 11 years and really enjoy it. I love the fact that every day is different and you never know what type of incidents you are going to be dealing with. It is a very rewarding job as you are helping people when they need it most. I also find it a lot less stressful than my previous job as a PA as each shift you hand over to the oncoming watch and have no intray to come back to work from after your time off!  I also like working as a team and we are very close on the watch. Over the next few months, I hope to give you a real insight into my work as a Control Operator.

The Control room has been quite busy since Christmas with all sorts of incidents.  Mainly though we have dealt with a lot of Road Traffic Collisions (RTCs) and fires.

We were on night duty on 7th January 2008 when we took a call to a chip pan on fire. We received the call from a neighbour. When the crews got there, the elderly occupant had sustained a cut to his head after trying to put out the fire and slipping on some water in the kitchen. We always advise callers that if there is a fire in their house that they get out and stay out.

We had an unusual incident during my day duty on 11th January 2008.  We took a call to a worker who was trapped under a gravestone. Our crews attended and they found a worker with his right leg trapped. They used winching equipment to release him.

On Friday 11th January 2008 four new recruit Fire Control Operators started their training course.  They spent the first day familiarising themselves and getting their uniforms from stores. They sat in the control room with us towards the end of the day to get an idea of the varied job we carry out. The training course is seven weeks long.  After which each trainee will find out which watch they will be going on. The first two weeks of the training course are the hardest as there is so much new information to learn starting with all the different fire stations in Greater Manchester and the callsigns of every appliance at each station (e.g. Wigan is W54 and Whitehill is S20)!  

 

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