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EADS to provide England’s Fire and Rescue Services with new networked control capability
Fire Minister Angela Smith today (March 7th) announced that the contract to supply the infrastructure for the national network of nine regional control centres for the Fire and Rescue Service will be awarded to EADS Defence and Security Systems. The contract is worth £200 million over eight years.
This marks a major step in the delivery of the Communities and Local Government’s Fire Control project. This key project will increase the resilience of the Fire and Rescue Services and the capacity to handle major emergencies by providing a state of the art call handling and management system.
Today’s announcement also represents the Government’s commitment to providing a modern Fire and Rescue Service which is equipped to deal with major incidents.
The Regional Control Centres will relay vital information to firefighting crews and deploy the nearest appropriate firefighting equipment, including the New Dimension Urban Search and Rescue and High Volume Pumping equipment seen in use at the recent Cumbria train crash and the Buncefield Fuel Depot fire. They will also be able to automatically back one another up during major incidents and in the event that one centre fails, providing a highly effective and resilient Fire and Rescue Service.
The Fire Minister Angela Smith said, “This is a major step forward for the Fire Control project. The Government’s first duty is to protect the public. At the heart of this project is the ability for the control centres to back each other up and to provide information direct to firefighters on the ground.
“The technology provided under this contract will help to identify the location of incidents more quickly and precisely, ensure that the correct equipment is mobilised as quickly as possible, and provide firefighters with information on the incident location. Ultimately this will help to further reduce the number of lives lost to fire.
“The choice of the right supplier for this project’s IT requirements is therefore vital. I am very pleased to announce today that Communities and Local Government intends to award EADS Defence and Security Systems this £200 million contract.”
The Government has decided that continuing under the current system is not an option if national resilience is to be enhanced and the public better protected. The current system relies on 46 control rooms which are not networked, operating on different systems and standards, and with differing levels of equipments and technology. Nor can they deploy firefighting equipment across authority boundaries. The cost of networking all 46 control rooms and supplying them with the new technology is estimated at more than twice the cost of the Fire Control project.
Communities and Local Government have been working in close partnership with members of the Fire and Rescue Service, the Local Government Association and Chief Fire Officers’ Association to deliver the Fire Control project.
Phil Toase, President of the Chief Fire Officers’ Association said, “I am very pleased that we have reached this important milestone in the Fire Control project and welcome the investment in the Fire and Rescue Services that it represents. CFOA will continue to work with the Government, and now with the supplier, to ensure that the project will enable the FRS to deliver a service to the public that rises to the challenges of the 21st century.”
EADS Defence & Security Systems will be responsible for building and running the systems that will ensure data relay within the fire service - giving firefighters as much information as possible to help them tackle the incident they are attending - and ultimately aiming to further reduce deaths in fires.
Len Tyler, CEO, EADS Defence & Security Systems Ltd., commented: “This announcement is a further demonstration of the powerful integration capabilities and skills we have built up at Newport in recent years. It builds on the success we have had in providing secure and resilient Infrastructure Communications Technology (ICT) solutions and services. It supports the current and future investment by EADS in South Wales.”
A key aspect of the transition is managing the transfer and training of staff from the current 46 different ways of working to a common best-practice delivery of the service. EADS will support the Fire and Rescue services in this, as well as designing, supplying, integrating, commissioning and maintaining the communications and IT system that will be at the heart of the Regional Control Centres network.
Robin Southwell, CEO of EADS UK commented, “We are only too aware that the best technology and most robust systems are only as good as the training provided to staff to allow them to operate the technology effectively. Our programme is focused on sensitive and effective change management, ensuring a seamless transition and that staff receive the best possible training to support efficient use of the new system. We look forward to supporting Communities and Local Government (CLG) and working closely with other key stakeholders such as the Fire & Rescue Authorities who will own the Regional Control Centre companies.”
Services that the Fire Control project will provide include:
Caller location so the location of a member of the public calling by telephone for help (whether mobile or landline) will be identified automatically saving time;
Satellite positioning to tell control operators which fire appliances, with the correct equipment on board, have the shortest travel time to an incident;
Computer-aided systems to enable staff to locate and directly mobilise the nearest available appropriate resources automatically, using data-transmission, not voice messages;
In cab displays so firefighters mobilised to an incident will have constantly updated information such as:
A map showing the quickest route to the incident;
Details of known risks and hazards in the building and/or the locality;
Floor plans and access details;
The location of the nearest hydrants and water supplies;
Relevant standard operating procedures for the type of incident concerned – e.g. how to deal with particular types of chemical or on how to dismantle particular types of car.
The project is being procured so as to allow for it to be phased-in and to avoid a single ‘big bang’ handover day, which will ensure the system is reliable and will give extra confidence to the public and firefighters as the system changes.
Communities and Local Government are today also starting to recruit the Regional Control Centre Directors. The Directors will be responsible for leading the operations of Regional Control Centres and will play a pivotal role preparing the Fire Control centres to ‘go live’ from 2008.
