A busy wildfire season saw our Control Room taking large numbers of emergency calls, with protracted incidents bringing additional challenges.
Following a refurbishment of their workspace, which saw teams relocated to a different area of our Eastleigh headquarters, operators returned to the control room suite ahead of one of their busiest summers ever.
A normal volume of calls into the HIWFRS Control Room is around 10-20 calls an hour, however the first three hours of the large New Forest wildfire off of the A31, saw our operators take around 100 calls an hour.
This is on top of the wider activity they undertake in supporting the day to day running our service, organising for relief crews to arrive at protracted incidents, and in strategically moving resources around our counties to ensure a sufficient level of cover is in place across Hampshire and Isle of Wight.
The fire at Headon Warren on the Isle of Wight saw control teams tasked with organising relief crews to take over from those who had been working hard in the heat, and managing extensive travel arrangements on top of their usual duties.
Station Manager Mike Carpenter said:
“Our control room’s work continues beyond the initial 999 call which first reports an incident and once firefighters arrive on the scene.
“Further emergency calls are taken and guidance provided, whilst the team also support those on the incident ground by sharing location and situation information, ensuring that our response is aligned with partners, and that our crews have the required resources on scene to resolve the incident, whilst maintaining cover across our area.
“There have been some long days and nights in the control room in recent months, but our people did what they do best, working together to rise above the challenges, to make Hampshire and Isle of Wight safer.
“Emergency services teams are always busy, and those at the end of the phoneline taking that 999 call are quite often forgotten as they aren’t as visible to the public. This is why it’s important we recognise our heroes in headsets this International Control Room Week.”
A new group of trainee control room firefighters are set to begin their initial training in November.
The programme will see them prepare for being the starting point of our frontline response, ensuring they have the emotional resilience and awareness to deal with difficult calls and incidents.
The initial four-week course will see the trainees hone their skills as well their knowledge of the service, and the systems we use to manage Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire & Rescue Service incidents. They’ll then enter the next phase of their development over the next 18 months.
Control room firefighter, Louise Pither said:
“After 12 years of working in care, I decided to leave for a new career, and on the recommendation of a friend, applied for Fire Control.
“It hasn’t been easy and the training has been intense, sometimes I thought my brain would burst with everything I needed to learn, but coming in, I realised how necessary and worth it, it was.
“It’s definitely been scary stepping outside of my comfort zone, but I have been lucky enough to join a really supportive and experienced watch who have shared all their knowledge and offered support when I have doubted myself.
“After all the challenges of this summer, like the Headon Warren and New Forest wildfires, and everything else in between, it was amazing to see how well Control worked together in such a demanding time.
“If you’ve ever considered applying, do it, it was the best decision I have made.”
Control teams follow the same rank structure station-based crews follow, with firefighters, crew managers and watch managers working the two days on, two nights on, four days off rota pattern.
They work closely with our partners in Dorset and Wiltshire, and Devon and Somerset, who together provide resilience for and take overflow calls from each other’s control rooms during busy periods.
International Control Room Week celebrates the life-saving work of emergency services call handlers, dispatchers, and control room staff across police, ambulance, fire, and coastguard services.
