A £1.86m investment is to be made by Warwickshire County Council to obtain new Control Rooms Systems (CRS) technology to support the county’s fire and rescue service.
The investment will update the current CRS in line with a Home Office project to upgrade all communication equipment across all blue light services in the UK. The new CRS is an ICT system to manage and deploy resources including the mobilisation of fire engines and other vehicles to emergency incidents. Warwickshire’s new CRS is a cloud-based software system which will allow Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service to connect to the central government’s Emergency Services Network (ESN) critical communications system.
It will transmit fast, safe and secure voice, video and data across the 4G network and give first responders immediate access to life-saving data, images and information in live situations and emergencies on the frontline across the county. The system uses the ESN’s high speed which will mean communication between the emergency services will take priority over all other network traffic.
The new system will also enable Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service to embrace new and innovative technology and functionality, increase capacity for effective remote working, collaborate between other emergency services and improve availability and accuracy of information from control to responding crews.
Warwickshire’s Assistant Chief Fire Officer, Ben Brook, said: "Often our community only see the fire engines as they arrive at an emergency incident but behind the scenes we have fantastic people making this all possible. Our Fire Control Room and operators receive emergency and non-emergency phone calls and deploy the right resources with the right people to the right incidents.
"This is a challenging role and requires the right technology. We are very excited to therefore be investing in technology that enhances the deployment of our resources and enhances communication between fire control and those responding to incidents.
"Our firefighters not only attend emergency incidents, they also undertake a range of prevention and protection activities. This new technology means that we can mobilise the nearest and most effective resource to an incident wherever they are in the county ensuring the communities of Warwickshire get the best possible service."
This investment is being funded through Warwickshire County Council’s Change Fund and Fire Transformation Fund respectively.