New fire control room 'serving local people'

Georgina Trownson, station manager, said local staff were serving local people

A new fire control room means local people will be served better during emergencies, staff believe.

Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service opened its new state-of-the-art control room in Ipswich back in June.

It came after Suffolk County Council ended a partnership with Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Fire Authority and use of their shared control room.

Four months since opening, Georgina Trownson, station manager, said the new way of working meant local staff were serving local people.

Staff underwent intense training ahead of the new control room opening

"It was really important to Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service to have control officers and operators that were making decisions around how their control room was going to function," she said.

"So it wasn't an easy decision for the fire service to make.

"Cambridgeshire have been absolutely brilliant in serving the county for as long as they had done.

"We've got individuals that live and work locally that have joined the team, we're able to dictate our ways of working, our mobilising systems."

Ms Trownson said prior to the opening staff had undergone an intense training period and trained for "every eventuality to ensure that we are prepared and give the best possible service to the members of Suffolk".

She added that since opening, the new control room had received about 7,000 calls and the summer had been busy with field fires.

Watch manager Robin Patchett said having local knowledge made the staff's work easier

The new control room took 18 months to complete and it was due to open at the end of 2024, but it was delayed due to the service supporting a new mobilising system in Cambridgeshire.

The project cost £1.6m and 23 new members of staff were hired.

Robin Patchett, watch manager, said the teams were ready and waiting to help those who needed it.

"We can work much closer with the crews on the appliances and the officers in the other departments within the service," he said of the new control room.

"We also have a bit more local knowledge. I have lived in Suffolk for over 20 years and having worked in the previous control room I know the county really well.

"It does make it a little easier. The biggest advantage is having that closer working relationship with all of our other departments."

Paul Walden said Suffolk's fire challenges differed from other less rural counties

Paul Walden, part of Green Watch at the service, has worked both as a firefighter and now in the control room.

He said his colleagues in Cambridgeshire had done a "fantastic job", but the Suffolk staff "know our risks and abilities".

"We are very rural as a county, we are known as a farming county," he said.

"Yes we have Ipswich, we have Lowestoft and we have Bury [St Edmunds], which are large towns, we have no cities.

"But we have rural villages so it can be a lot further to travel for a fire engine so that is a big challenge.

"During the summer we have a lot of field fires which is a big issue we have with Suffolk at the moment."

Suffolk Fire and Rescue said bringing services back to Suffolk put residents and public value at the heart of emergency response