One evening in July 2006 we were allowed full access to the Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service Control Room at Fire Service Headquarters, Glenfield, Leicester.

There are a total of 26 control staff currently working the same shift pattern as the full time firefighters (2x 10 hour days, 2x 14 hour nights then 4 days off with the first day off starting at 8am after the last night shift). The staff are divided into “watches”, again the same as firefighters.

Our hosts for the evening were members of “Green Watch”, during which time we were talked through the work of control, and witnessed at first hand incoming calls, mobilization and other aspects of their work.

A minimum of four staff will be on duty in control on each shift. One operator will work the radio, another the incoming calls, and two others will be in a supervisory/managerial role.

Figures

The Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service area covers 255,000 hectares and comprises a mixture of urban, semi rural and rural localities. The population is currently estimated at 953,170 residing in an estimated 383,525 domestic properties. Of the total population, around 288,016 reside within the city of Leicester.

The control staff co-ordinate the turning out of appliances from 20 fire stations which are crewed by a total of 396 full time and 216 part-time firefighters.
They take on average 24,000 emergency calls each year, resulting in approximately 14,000 actual incidents of which approximately 40% are fires, 40% are false alarms and the remaining 20% are other incidents eg. Road Traffic Collisions.

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The Workstation

At each operators workstation there are 3 screens and 2 keyboards. The right-hand screen is the “call concentrator” which is “touch” operated and allows the controlling of the telephone system and the radio scheme.
Part of the screen is dedicated to the emergency '999' lines and other collector stations eg. Automatic Fire Alarm monitor stations, Police etc Whatever call comes in, the relevant line goes red and is listed on the far right of the screen. The operator can take a call by pressing the relevant button, or the “take call” button which prioritizes emergency calls in order of their receipt.
If a 999 call is not answered within 30 seconds, it will be transferred to Derbyshire fire control.
Operators can make calls using this system as the database contains every conceivable number that may be required including station phones, appliance mobiles and staff contact numbers. Direct numbers to other services such as Electricity, Gas and Water etc are also stored.
A numeric pad is available to use if a number needs to be entered manually.
All calls are recorded to enable playback to confirm any details if required.
The main radio scheme is also controlled via this screen, and in addition to our own appliances adjacent counties can also be called on via radio.
The centre screen on the operator’s desk is the “REMSDAQ” system, which is the main database of incidents and appliance availability.
It can display a basic list of current and recent incidents or can display full information about specific ones.
At the start of each shift, a crewing list is obtained from each fire station to determine which appliances are manned, and the appliance register updated to show the current status.
The real time status of appliances is maintained on the database by the operators as they receive the information via radio or telephone, enabling any new incident to have the correct appliances resourced to it.
The left-hand screen is the mapping screen, and as well as having a variable detailed map of the county, it can display a graphical view of appliance availability.
One call received whilst we were there was from a caller on a mobile phone reporting a motorbike on fire in a park. The caller did not know the exact address of the fire, as it was being viewed from the other side of a river, but by using the mapping system the operator was able to establish the location by asking the caller about any features she could see to match those on the map.

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The Call

When a call is taken, a “new incident” needs to be created and certain information obtained.
First is the callers ID, i.e. the originating phone number. The system knows if the number is a telephone kiosk and its location. It will also display any other information previously recorded against the number eg. malicious calls.
The address the caller gives must match an address on the database, and the type of incident needs to be entered, i.e. car fire, house fire etc.
Once the information is obtained, a list then appears at the bottom of the screen as to which and how many appliances should be sent known as the PDA (“Pre Determined Attendance”). This PDA can be edited before being sent if the operator believes it should be upgraded or downgraded.
One example of a downgrade would be an attendance to a car fire in the car park of a hospital. A PDA to a hospital would be several appliances where as a car fire would normally be only one appliance.
When the send button is hit, the alarms will sound in the relevant stations, and any part time crew required will be paged.
The address and details of the incident are printed onto the station printers for the crew to tear off and take with them. Any appliance required that is not on station can be mobilized by radio or mobile phone.
If several calls are received to an incident, the operator will be alerted to the fact that a similar incident has already been logged on the system.
Once appliances are crewed they communicate with control by radio or mobile phone to convey their status i.e. mobile to incident, in attendance etc.
They then have to keep control updated so the information can be logged against the incident. They may require additional fire service resources or outside help such as Police or Ambulance.
If a chemical incident occurs, data is available on another database to enable crews to deal with it safely.
For incidents requiring three appliances an Incident Support vehicle is sent to establish a point of contact and control on the fire ground.
For larger incidents, the Command Vehicle from Lutterworth station will be sent.
Before an incident can be “closed”, certain information has to be confirmed such as: property type, incident type, fire and type, method of call, method of extinguishing, services called, BA used, civilians injured/fatal, fire service injured/fatal and persons rescued.
We hope this article has given you an insight to a part of the Fire Service you do not normally get to see, and will give you re-assurance that if you need to call the fire service you have a dedicated and professional team to help you.

Our thanks to all members of Green Watch for their help and patience during our visit.

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