£200 million fire network contract goes to EADS

gallery

An eight-year, £200 million contract to improve the national network of the Fire and Rescue Service has been awarded to EADS Defence and Security Systems.

The network will increase the service's ability to handle major emergencies by improving its call handling system and helping relay information to fire-fighting crews.

"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," said Fire Minister Angela Smith. "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 Fire Control project, set to begin rollout in 2008, will also automatically identify a caller's location, whether they're calling from a mobile or a landline, to help save time and integrate with satellite positioning to tell operators which suitably-equipped fire engines are closest to the emergency.

Vehicles will have dashboard-mounted displays so firefighters can access maps and route information, building floor plans and access points, and the locations of fire hydrants. The system will allow on-scene fire fighters to look up more specific information - such as how to deal with chemical spills or how to dismantle a certain type of car.

The new system will reduce the number of control rooms from 46 to nine across England. Currently, the control rooms are not networked and use different applications and technology, meaning they can't deploy equipment across authority boundaries. The cost of networking the 46 current control rooms was estimated at twice the cost of the planned centralised system.

Email to a friend

Print this page