What is a command unit?

All command vehicles have a common purpose, they are:

  • A contact point
  • A reporting point
  • A command point

Command vehicles are crewed by a dedicated on-call team called the Incident Command Team.  The team is made up of Control operators, Service administrators, information technology staff and operational firefighters.

Our new Command Unit 1 vehicle

Charlie One

The main command unit known, as ‘Charlie One’ is a vehicle that would be mobilised to five pumps plus, it carries a crew of five and contains numerous items of advanced equipment. This vehicle can secure resilient connectivity by cellular, satellite or WiFi connections. The operators area consists of designated responsibilities such as communications, logistics, accountability, risk and incident management. Various information such as mapping, weather and site specific information can be captured by this vehicle to assist with situational awareness, other equipment such as deployable cameras can send video back to the vehicle for use in command or multi-agency briefings. 

Charlie Two

We also have a command support unit known as ‘Charlie Two’. This is our back up vehicle which would be deployed in the event of a simultaneous significant incident, or if our main command unit is defective. The crew size is four however it has the same responsibilities as the main command unit. 

Command Support Unit two
Command Support Unit - Charlie threes

Charlie threes

The smallest of our command support vehicle’s are crewed by our on-call firefighters. 

They are known as ‘Charlie threes’ these vehicles based at Rushmoor, Basingstoke, Eastleigh, Portchester and Beaulieu.

They support incidents with three or four Pumps and normally have a crew of four/five.  

The rear of these vehicles also contain incident support equipment such as breathing apparatus cylinders.

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