Control room staff immediately instigated the Service’s well-practiced business continuity response plan at 0730 hours on Sunday morning after a water leak, caused by melted snow on the headquarters roof, lead to an electrical power failure to the control room.
Staff were alerted to the power failure by the audio alarm system and immediately organised for Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service to take emergency calls to ensure there was no negative impact on the handling of emergency calls from members of the public, or the attendance of fire appliances to emergencies.
Control staff then relocated to the emergency control centre at a Hampshire County Council building in Winchester to carry on their duties and were operating as normal within the hour without any disruption to the Service’s emergency response capability.
The control room was back to business as usual at headquarters by 2130 hours on Sunday evening.