Fire minister hands over new fire control centre for north east

Published	17 March 2008

A major project to help improve the fire and rescue service's ability to respond to the public during major emergencies in the north-east took another step forward today when Fire Minister Parmjit Dhanda handed over the new control centre building to the North East FireControl Company Ltd.

The Fire Minister's visit coincided with the publication of the Chief Fire and Rescue Adviser Sir Ken Knight's report on the fire and rescue services response to the floods, last summer.

In that report, Sir Ken praises the tremendous efforts by the fire and rescue services, but says that the operational response was hampered by outdated, disparate and overloaded equipment in England's individual control rooms.

At present, the Fire and Rescue Authorities in England run 46 separate standalone control rooms relying on differing technologies and operating procedures. The gap between the most advanced and the rest is stark, as shown by Sir Ken's report, where some calls even had to be faxed between control rooms.

Parmjit Dhanda said:

"The Fire and Rescue Service always responds professionally and with dedication and I praise them for that. We saw this clearly in last summer's floods which also affected part of the north east around Chester le Street.

"The Government commissioned a report on the FRS and the Floods which is published today. It shows the enormous volume of calls that the services had to deal with. And it shows clearly why the new nationally linked fire control centre network is vitally important. The new fire control centres will ensure that all parts of the country have the best available service to deal with emergency calls and why I am so pleased to be able to mark this important milestone in the north-east today."

Statistics quoted in the report, Facing the Challenge published today include:

In one 24 hour period, service providers tried to route 72,000 calls to one control room.
BT call connections to the service nationally are normally at a rate of 180 calls per hour but this increased to 2,700 calls per hour at its peak.
Humberside FRS's control room received over 3,000 calls in one 18 hour period compared to the usual 56 for the same period and some calls were rerouted to other FRS who themselves were facing greatly increased call levels.

Charles Magee, chair of the Durham and Darlington Fire Authority, speaking on behalf of the Regional Management Board of the four north-east Fire and Rescue Services said:

"The hand over of the building today marks a major step in the FireControl Project, and demonstrates the commitment of, and progress by, the Fire and Rescue authorities in the region to deliver enhanced emergency call handling services by the end of 2009. We are delighted that the Fire Minister has come to the north east to mark the occasion."

The NE Fire Control Company is owned by the four Fire and Rescue Authorities that make up the NE region. These are Cleveland, Durham, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear. The NE FCC company was set up in August 2007. It is limited by guarantee as a not for profit body wholly owned by the local fire and rescue authorities, guaranteeing accountability to local government. The company directors are elected members from the four fire authorities in the region.

Councillor George Porter, Chair of the North East Firecontrol Company Limited, the leaseholders for the new award-winning Regional Control Centre, added:

"The company is proud to be taking over the regional control centre. Once operational, our aim is to provide excellent emergency call handling and mobilisation to the benefit of both the public and the Fire and Rescue Services in the region."

Notes to editors

1. RCC Director

RCC Director Kevin Robson was appointed to the post of North East Regional Control Centre director in August 2007. The new NE RCC is at Belmont Business Park in Durham.

Kevin served in Cleveland Police in the UK for thirty years, holding many positions including leading business benefits studies as part of the national Airwave communications project, and developing the business case for the Cleveland Shared Emergency Services Control Room Project. Kevin also spent five years seconded to the Police Information Technology Organisation, instigating the development of new ICT systems for UK police forces.

2. Role of Fire Control RCCs

At present the Fire and Rescue Authorities in England run 46 separate control rooms relying on differing technologies and operational procedures. The gap between the most advanced and the rest is stark. The existing control rooms are stand-alone and cannot readily step-in at times of high demand or failure.

The new control centre network will bring the following benefits which are not currently available throughout the country:

The North East RCC will be part of a nationally linked network with 8 other control centres in England - and they will be able to automatically back up each other in times of increased call pressure or failure. The control rooms will work on the same technology and have access to the same data-bases;
The centres will be able to deploy appliances to incidents more effectively, providing information direct to the firefighting vehicle's cab about routing to the site, floor plans and hazards, water supplies and even how to dismantle various types of cars.
Satellite positioning equipment will tell the control centre computers which fire appliance(s) including New Dimension assets are closest to the incident in terms of travel time and with the correct equipment on board;
Wherever you are calling from will be known - The location of a member of the public calling by telephone for help will be identified automatically saving time;
The control centre technology will enable staff to mobilise the nearest available appliance(s) quickly, using data-transmission, not voice messages;
Firefighters mobilised to the incident will have data terminals in their vehicles. These will be constantly updated, giving them a wide range of information in a standard format, including:
- a map showing the quickest route to the incident, taking into account the latest information on traffic conditions, road closures, etc (using SATNAV technology);
- details of known risks and hazards in the building and/or the locality;
- floor plans and access details, where appropriate;
- the location of the nearest hydrants and water supplies;
- relevant standard operating procedures for the type of incident concerned - eg how to deal with particular types of chemical or on how to dismantle particular types of car.