Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Official launch of fire control room
THE £2.5 million Scottish Fire and Rescue Service North Operations Control was officially opened in Dundee today.
SFRS Chief Officer Alasdair Hay unveiled the new facility at Macalpine Road Fire Station.
Control room teams in Dundee have been tasked with receiving alerts from as far afield as the Highlands and Islands since last year, after the service agreed to the closure of five control rooms across the country in 2014.
The Macalpine Road facility — which was completed in March — is now one of only three centres operating across Scotland.
Two other control rooms handle calls in Edinburgh and Renfrewshire.
Improvements to the Macalpine Road building include a single-story extension to the operations control room.
Staff there have already handled thousands of emergency calls.
Fire chiefs previously defended the centralisation of control in Dundee following a series of errors in dispatching crews in the Highlands.
In one incident, firefighters were sent to Thurso Crescent, Dundee, when they were supposed to be responding to a call i n Thurso Crescent, Caithness.
The fire service said previously that it was working to tackle those problems and confirmed the service is “systematically identifying and addressing any issues arising and rectifying these accordingly.”
Chairman of the SFRS Board, Pat Watters, previously said the new north operations control room was “dedicated” to handling thousands of emergency calls.
He said: “Our dedicated control staff stand on that unseen front line, handling thousands of emergency calls from the public each year.
“The command and control of fire and rescue assets depends on not only the mobilising system but also the local knowledge of crews who are on the ground — and able to respond.
“They essentially work together as a team to respond in times of emergency.
“I wholeheartedly commend their professionalism and their commitment as we continue to move forward as a national service.”