International Control Room Week celebrates vital public safety contribution of Fire Control call handlers

This summer was one of the busiest on record for Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service as prolonged hot and dry weather drove a significant increase in incidents across the county – and behind every 999 call was our Fire Control team.

This week (October 26 – November 1) marks International Control Room Week and provides us with an opportunity to highlight the work of our Control Room staff.

In July, Fire Control received 1,721 emergency 999 calls, resulting in firefighters attending nearly 800 incidents. These included around 450 fires, 23 large outdoor fires and approximately 50 road traffic collisions. And the following month was even busier, with more than 2,100 emergency calls to the Service – resulting in a record high number of incidents being logged.

Once these calls are connected to the Control Room, which is in Daventry, one of the members of the Watch on duty will allocate appliances, officers and crews to attend an incident – and will select from more than 130 different incident types. They will also gather information from the person who has called up and offer any lifesaving advice and guidance.

A member of the Control Room will then effectively act as the Incident Commander until an engine, or an officer, arrives at the incident. They will then support until the end by logging decisions, relaying information and essentially connecting everyone attending the incident together.

Charlie Walton (pictured above) has worked in Fire Control for four years and currently serves on White Watch. He said: “What appealed to me about working in Fire Control was being able to help people.

“I’m really proud to tell people what I do for a living. It can be easy to forget sometimes just how important the work we do is. We talk to people every day when they are at one of their lowest points, and it’s good to go home and feel like you may have made a positive difference to that person’s life.”

It’s not just 999 calls though, as the Control Room team helps other departments out of hours and will complete administrative work for the Service. They will also occasionally take calls from other parts of the country. The Control Room team in Northamptonshire partners with Warwickshire so that one acts as back-up for the other if they have an overflow of calls.

Reflecting on the important role our Fire Control team play, Chief Fire Officer Nikki Watson said: “We took a record number of calls during this summer’s heatwave, and our Fire Control team went above and beyond duty to ensure all the calls were answered swiftly, and to help co-ordinate our emergency response.

“A lot of the work Fire Control does is behind the scenes and won’t always necessarily be seen by the public when they see our engines and firefighters at an incident. But every firefighter will highlight just how important Fire Control is – in many ways they are the cog of the Fire Service and bring everything together as we try to protect people from harm.

“We are very proud of the work they do, and I want to thank everyone in our Fire Control team for their efforts in helping to keep residents in Northamptonshire safe.”