Fire control centre’s IT problems ‘put lives at risk’

Union claims computer glitches could cause emergency response delays:

COMPUTER glitches at a fire control room are putting lives in Greater Manchester at risk, claims a union.

The Fire Brigades Union has issued a Safety Critical Notice to the 999 centre at Warrington.

Near the M62 it serves Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Cumbria, and Lancashire.

It opened in 2014 – ten years after being announced. The local brigade pay North West Fire Control – a company set up to run the centre.

It is one of five control centres issued with notices by the FBU.

The union is demanding IT issues are addressed urgently as huge number of calls are handled related to storms.

It claims an IT failure in the centre can cause a delay of up to eight minutes.

The Safety Critical notices raise issues including:

■ Failures in the mobilising system to document and record addresses, requiring staff to log off and on again before mobilising resources

■ The mobilising system slows down to ‘unusable’ levels during incidents on motorways

■ Attempts to issue resource proposals are met with frozen whiteout screens

■ Risk-critical information is not properly communicated to control staff, such as whether the occupier is a hoarder, whether there has been a firearms risk, whether there is a risk of violence to crews

■ Failure to send critical emails including arson threat referrals and accident/injury report forms, due to a migration to a new Microsoft Outlook server

The move comes as concern continues over Greater Manchester Police’s troubled iOPS computer system.

North West Fire Control’s 5,000 square mile remit covers a population of 5.5m. It includes Manchester Airport and Sellafield nuclear facility.

It was first unveiled in 2004 and was meant to be up and running in 2010.

The original government project was hit by serious delays in installing a computer system and a catalogue of errors by the main contractor.

Then four fire services – Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Cumbria, and Lancashire – took over the north west centre and resurrected the project themselves.

The government gave them the building, which had stood virtually empty since 2009, and a grant of £37m. The north west centre is at Lingley Mere Business Park.

Lynda Rowan-O’Neil, from the FBU Control Staff national committee, said: “We’ve repeatedly warned that these IT failings are dangerous, but have been ignored. Our control rooms are desperately understaffed and conditions have become completely untenable.

“The control room mergers involved massive cuts to staff numbers, which have seriously undermined our ability to handle the overwhelming volume of stormrelated calls. We cannot keep allowing outdated, malfunctioning IT systems to delay emergency response. It’s no secret that, in an emergency, a matter of seconds could be the difference between life and death. These failings could genuinely endanger lives.”

Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, said: “We are deeply concerned about the litany of failings in fire control. Without efficient, wellstaffed control rooms, it’s impossible to quickly mobilise resources to a fire, or understand the risks when firefighters arrive.

“This is coinciding with one of the worst storm seasons we’ve had in years - it isn’t safe for firefighters or the public. It’s an utter disgrace that emergency fire control bosses have ignored the concerns of their own staff for so long. The FBU is fully behind our members taking on these safety-critical issues and will be applying pressure nationally and regionally.”

The affected control rooms cover some of the areas worst hit by Storm Ciara. The East Coast and Hertfordshire Control Room Consortium (ECHCRC) covers Humberside, Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Hertfordshire, and the north west.

But bosses at Greater Manchester insisted that sophisticated technology will mean standards remain high despite the merger.

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service declined to comment.

The North West Control Centre has also been contacted for comment.