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 to day when Fire Minister Parmjit Dhanda handed over of the new control centre building to the North East FireControl Company Ltd.
The Fire Minister's visit coincided with the publishing of the Chief Fire and Rescue Adviser Sir Ken Knight's report on the fire and rescue services response to the floods.
In that report Sir Ken praises the tremendous efforts by the fire and rescue services to deal with floods, but says that the operational response was hampered by outdated, disparate and overloaded equipment in England's individual control rooms.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 North East Fire Control Company Ltd (NE FCC) is owned by the four Fire and Rescue Authorities that make up the North East region. These are Cleveland, Durham, Northumberland and Tyne and Wear. The NE FCC 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 NE FCC, 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."
