FiReControl is a UK based project to reduce the number of control rooms used to handle emergency calls for fire brigades and authorities. Presently there are 46 control rooms in England that handle calls from the public for emergency assistance via the 999 system. Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq... 999 is the United Kingdoms emergency telephone number along with the EU standard 112. ...

The need for FiReControl

The FiReControl project is establishing nine regional control rooms, or RCCs (regional control centres) that are purpose built that would enable fire authorities to deal with a range of incidents, and resilience - that is to control and handle any civil emergency including response to terrorist attacks and environmental disasters. ^[1] For the band see Resilience (band) Resilience generally means the ability to recover from (or to resist being affected by) some shock, insult, or disturbance. ...

The project comes under the UK government department known as the Department for Communities and Local Government, which until May 2006 was known as the ODPM or Office of Deputy Prime Minister. The DFCLG has produced a map (in pdf format) of the current and proposed new control centres: [1] The Department for Communities and Local Government is a United Kingdom government department. ... The Department for Communities and Local Government is a United Kingdom government department. ...

Background

Fire brigades have traditionally been responsible for answering their own emergency calls - that is, those that are passed to the brigade control room from the BT operator who initially speaks to the caller, who has usually dialled 999 from the landline, or cellular telephone system.

The control rooms have direct links with the other emergency services. Due to its size, the London Fire Brigade had three control rooms throughout the 1960s 70s and 80s, located at Stratford in east London, Croydon in south London and Wembley in north west London, but this was rationalised with one control room based in central London in the early 1990s.^[2]; a new centre was opened in London's Docklands in 2004. The London Fire Brigade (LFB) provides fire fighting and rescue services in London, UK. It is the third largest fire department in the world with nearly 7000 staff. ... The Millennium Dome and Canary Wharf from the Royal Victoria Dock. ...

The FiReControl project came about as a result of the Independent Review of the Fire Service which was published by Professor Sir George Bain in September 2002 - it is known informally as the Bain report and led to a national fire strike over 2002 and 2003. For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ...

The FiReControl website says:

"In 1999, the Government commissioned Mott MacDonald to carry out a review of fire control rooms, resulting in a report which was published in April 2000. This was followed, in 2002, by the Bain Report and in 2003 by the White Paper 'Our Fire and Rescue Service' and an updated version of Mott MacDonald's Report.

"The outcome of this extensive review process was the recommendation that the Fire and Rescue Service move to a network of regional control rooms." ^[3]

Roll-out of RCCs

Building work had begun by 2006 on regional control centres across England, the complete timetable and roll-out of regional control centres - RCCs - has been approved by Fire Service Minister, Jim Fitzpatrick.^[4]. The implementation of FiReControl is expected to be completed by 2009.

References

External links

• Department for Communities and Local Govt: FiReControl
• Discussion paper on Public Technology website
• User page, article on how fire calls are handled