This week marks the beginning of International Control Room Week (24th – 30th October) and Cleveland Fire Brigade would like to take this opportunity to celebrate the amazing and lifesaving work of their Control Room staff.
“Our Control Room staff are undoubtedly the beating heart of this organisation and a crucial part of Cleveland Fire Brigade. This week we want to thank them wholeheartedly for their dedication, commitment, and the extremely important role they play in helping to keep our communities safe.” says Simon Weastell, Senior Head of Operations.
The Control Room team consists of 16 members of staff who are based at our headquarters in Hartlepool, and they are often the first port of call for people who urgently need assistance.
The Control room deals with a large variety of calls daily, both emergency and administration, from assisting members of the public with Home Fire Safety appointments and Stay Safe and Warm requests, to numerous emergency incidents. Emergency calls can vary hugely from grass and rubbish fires, to providing Fire Survival Guidance advice to assist people when faced with a fire in their home. The Control Room also mobilises resources to assist with Road Traffic Accidents; Water Rescue; Line Rescue; and Chemical fires and spillages.
Karen Hudson, Fire Control Manager says “Working in Control can be incredibly challenging at times due to the urgency of the calls we receive, meaning we need to make crucial, split-second decisions around the clock, every day of the year. However, it is also incredibly rewarding, and we couldn’t be prouder of the work that we do to keep people safe.”
The dedicated Control Room staff work tirelessly behind the scenes 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to deliver fire services to emergencies in our communities covering Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar & Cleveland, and Stockton-on-Tees. During the financial year 2021/22 Cleveland Fire Control received 14,041 emergency calls and mobilised resources to 9,919 incidents. So far in 2022 they have processed 9,138 emergency calls and mobilised resources to 6,412 incidents. This August 2022 has been the highest number of emergency calls received to the Control Room in the last five years.
The Control Room staff have been meticulously trained so that when a 999 call comes in, they can expertly handle tense situations and remain calm whilst they quickly and accurately gather information. They then use this data to help them make critical decisions and send resources exactly where they are needed to protect local communities.
