Critical functions
Fire control personnel should focus attention and resources on performing critical functions during periods of multiple calls and multiple incidents, including:
- Emergency call management
- Mobilisation of operational resources
- Multi-agency communication
- Incident management and support
- Management of operational resource coverage
- Troubleshooting issues with critical fire control systems, such as mobilising systems, to identify the cause and rectify or report as necessary
Prioritisation
The impact that a period of multiple calls or incidents has on the completion of business-as-usual tasks may be mitigated by pre-planning and inclusion in fire and rescue service degradation plans, in which fire and rescue services consider which functions fire control personnel can perform while working under such conditions at any time of day. Fire and rescue services should recognise that sustained periods of multiple calls or incidents may mean fire control personnel are unable to perform any non-critical business-as-usual functions for protracted periods of time.
Reallocation of non-priority tasks
It may be appropriate for some non-critical functions to be temporarily reallocated to other suitably trained fire and rescue service personnel. It is important that these functions and their methods for reallocation are pre-identified and involve as little intervention by fire control personnel as possible.
Pre-identifying functions that are suitable for reallocation avoids fire control personnel becoming overwhelmed and allows them to concentrate on fulfilling critical functions.
The reallocation of non-emergency functions normally performed by fire control personnel may include:
- The overseeing of fire and rescue service resource availability to other suitably trained personnel
- The diversion of public, non-emergency lines of communication away from fire control personnel to other suitably trained personnel
- The reallocation of the monitoring and response to other non-emergency public queries (such as social media) to other suitably trained personnel
- The reallocation of fire and rescue service personnel sickness absence reporting and processing and other administrative functions to other suitably trained personnel
The work required and any strategies to reallocate it should be pre-planned and clearly understood by fire control personnel and the suitably trained personnel to whom the functions are assigned.
Personnel monitoring and responding to non-emergency methods of contact from the public should be made aware how to pass any emergency calls or relevant incident-related information that is incorrectly routed to them, to fire control. This may include instructing the member of the public to dial 999 to speak to fire control personnel.
Share situational awareness
Fire control personnel may reduce the amount of non-essential contact they receive from the wider fire and rescue service by sharing situational awareness of the current situation with other fire and rescue service personnel. This may be achieved through suitably trained personnel, such as communications and media personnel, using email or other electronic messaging systems to reach a wide audience quickly.