Establish alternative fire control arrangements

Evacuation of the primary fire control should be considered a last resort. All other contingency arrangements should be explored prior to evacuation.

Fire and rescue services should have arrangements in place to continue receiving emergency calls and mobilising resources in the event of full or partial loss of the primary facility. Arrangements may include:

• Having secondary control facilities from where the fire control room function can be re-established
• Entering into an agreement with another organisation to temporarily carry out emergency call management activities; where this option is selected, consideration should be given to the methods used to mobilise resources and share incident information

Fire and rescue services should consider the provision of an evacuation pack. This should contain specific items that fire control personnel need when evacuating primary fire control and working from an alternative location. Items may include:

• Business continuity plans
• Aides-memoire
• Equipment such as:
  • Mobile telephones
  • Handheld radios
  • Mobile devices
• Methods to gain entry into the secondary facility
• Stationery items

Fire and rescue services should consider any constraints to normal operational service delivery caused by working from a secondary control facility. Constraints may include room size and number of available workstations.

Secondary control facilities

Mobilising systems may offer different alternative functionality, ranging from portable laptop computers to full mobilising systems and communications interfaces that mirror the primary facility.

Secondary fire control facilities should match those provided at the primary fire control as far as is practicable. As a minimum, they should be capable of:

• Receiving emergency and non-emergency calls
• Logging incident information
• Mobilising operational resources
• Radio communications

Any equipment and information used at secondary control facilities should be maintained and tested regularly. This will assist with its functionality and efficiency.

The secondary control facilities should be at a location that would not be affected by any disruption to the services provided at primary fire control. This may require establishing secondary facilities served by a different communications network and servers to those of primary fire control.

Welfare arrangements

When using secondary control facilities, the adoption of appropriate welfare arrangements will assist with the safe and effective delivery of the fire control function. And support the health and wellbeing of fire control personnel.

Consideration should be given to the number of fire control personnel on duty and the number of personnel that may be required. It is also important to consider communications with fire control personnel not on duty. Adequate arrangements should be made, including sanitary and hygiene facilities, access to drinking water, and hot and cold refreshments. Fire and rescue services should consider the length of the redeployment and the affect this may have on fire control personnel, such as disruption to travel arrangements and journey times. Appropriate welfare facilities should be provided for the duration of the event. Refer to Ineffective safety management of fire control activities – Risk assessment of fire control activities for more information.