National Wales Fire and Rescue Resilience
In recent years the three Welsh Fire and Rescue Services have been increasingly aware of the evolving operational demands facing their service. Prolonged periods of bad weather, influenza pandemics and even the possibility of terrorist attacks were new threats that needed to be seriously considered and the appropriate information, infrastructure and operational practices developed and implemented to manage such scenarios.
Based on these observations and conclusions, a set of strategic goals were defined that supported an intention to increase resilience, capacity and collaborative-working in the Welsh Fire and Rescue Service.
With all three FRSs in Wales already running the VISION FX Command and Control solution, Fortek were well placed to provide further functionality to meet their enhanced resilience goals.
The project, commissioned by the three FRSs themselves but entirely funded by The Welsh Assembly Government at the start of 2009, was divided up into several delivery streams aimed at meeting the following business objectives:
1. Provide capability to receive calls and mobilise on behalf of another Welsh FRS
2. Extend the resource mobilisation and communications infrastructure
3. Handle overflowing calls from one FRS to the others during spate conditions
4. Improve Mutual Assistance processes by which one FRS requests the assistance of resources belonging to the others
5. Improve awareness and utilisation of retained personnel
6. Enhance the capability to co-ordinate FRS activities from the Wales Emergency Coordination Centre (ECCW) during a major emergency operation.
"South Wales Fire & Rescue Service has a long association with Fortek Computers Ltd. I value the relationship with the engineers and managers from the company. They understand our business and the vital service they help us deliver. Fortek has recently helped the 3 Fire and Rescue Services in Wales develop an enhanced resilient and transparent service to the citizens of Wales, so that in the event of one service becoming overwhelmed by 999 calls or a catastrophic failure occurring and any control room becomes unavailable, the public would still get a timely response with local firefighters mobilised from another control room in Wales. This provides true business continuity for one of the mission critical elements delivered by a Fire and Rescue Service in Wales."
Andy Marles, Chief Fire Officer, South Wales Fire and Rescue Service
Click here to download the National Wales Fire and Rescue Resilience Case Study
For further information contact
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