West Midlands Fire Service’s Fire Control recently made the move to its new home on the Vauxhall Road 
Headquarters site, and this complicated and difficult project was completed successfully with no impact on delivery of service.
This is even more impressive when you consider that the move included the introduction of a brand new Command and Control system, and a new touch-screen radio solution called ‘C-Soft’, that will pave the way for the implementation of a new single digital wide area communication system called FireLink.
Linda Melland, Fire Control Section Head, said: “The success of the projects to move to a new Fire Control and to implement a new Command & Control and radio systems at the same time was down to the skills and expertise of everyone who worked on the projects, and the professionalism of our Fire Control staff who had to undergo intensive training on the new systems in a very short space of time.
“Moving Fire Control was probably the most challenging part of the move to the new Headquarters, due to the complexities of the equipment involved and the vital role it plays 24 /7.
“I would like to thank everyone involved, for their hard-work, and Fire Control staff for their on-going contribution to the success of the Brigade.
The new Command and Control system has been supplied by industry-leader Fortek. It combines dynamic mobilising with risk information, automatic vehicle location (AVL), a routing system containing the road network and the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) to provide one of the most advanced systems in the UK.
Dynamic mobilising operates via a live map of the Brigade area, showing all operational vehicles and their exact location 24/7. Using AVL, the system recognises the fastest and most appropriate resource with regard to appliance type, equipment, and staffing, to respond to any given type of incident, and no longer needs to refer to station areas.
The gazetteer in use is now ‘premise-based’, which supports the organisations drive to utilise risk information to a much greater degree. Together, ‘Vision’ and the newly released version of the Activity Assistance means that across the organisation the ability to deliver premise-based up-to-date risk information has now been achieved. Risk information is delivered to responding appliances and provides vital information to the crews at the incident ground or even on their way to the job.
The Vision system has also been designed to be very flexible, with scope for additional functionality and further development. This will ensure that West Midlands Fire Service can successfully meet any requirements resulting from Integrated Risk Management Planning (IRMP) in the future, and will also assist in the smooth transition to the Regional Control Centre in due course.
Fire Control is now opening its doors to visitors, and will be offering presentations giving information and insight into the new technology in use and the key role that Fire Control plays within emergency response.
