Fire service to link to out of area control rooms

The initiative aims to work with other services across the country to prevent fire controllers from being overwhelmed

A fire service is looking at joining its command and control system with other services hundreds of miles away to help in times of crisis.

The idea is to prevent operators at Shropshire Fire and Rescue from being overwhelmed by calls during high pressure incidents such as flooding.

Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue is the closest control room to the service but in an incident such as flooding it would probably also be experiencing a high volume of calls, the Shropshire service said.

Joining with services such as County Durham and Darlington, more than 200 miles (322km) away, would increase resilience in the team, Chief Fire Officer Simon Hardiman said.

He told a meeting of Shropshire and Wrekin Fire and Rescue Authority one of the recommendations from the Grenfell Tower inquiry was about the resilience of fire control rooms.

The fire service in London had 70 operators on duty that day who were overwhelmed, he said.

Joining up with services that are not local, like Durham and Darlington, and Cleveland, made the same circumstances less likely.

Assistant chief fire officer Karen Gowreesunker said the joint system was a "significant collaboration" and the project was currently being evaluated.

The joint command and control arrangement was picked out by inspectors last year who said they were looking forward to seeing the project progress.