New technology helping Shropshire fire service respond to 999 calls more quickly

The service is believed to be the first in the country to update software for its command and control centre, which will "shave seconds" off call-out times, cut the costs of lengthy computer repairs and make its network run more smoothly.

Chief fire officer John Redmond said the service had taken "a bold step" to change the traditional technology.

They now want other emergency services to consider changing the way they use IT.

The new "virtual" platform was introduced six months ago at the centre, based at Shrewsbury Fire Station, and has now been fully tested. A number of other fire and rescue services are interested in using the technology – widely used in other industries.

ICT manager Sally Edwards and team leader Ron Davia have both been commended for their work on the system.

Ms Edwards said: "We have improved the resilience and availability of our system by adopting a new approach. The technology is already widely used, but not in command and control systems.

"We have made huge improvements and want other emergency services to consider taking the same approach."

The research on how to reduce the time it took to repair technical faults started six months ago, and Ms Edwards she added: "The recovery time from a technical failure could take up to eight hours depending on the severity of the fault and I felt this was unacceptable."

The initial investigation was met with a reluctance to change the established system where 999 operators use computers to alert firefighters to an emergency.

But Ms Edwards said: "I researched it with other brigades and they didn't want to change. I found the case was compelling and eventually concluded that the only reason why computer change had not been introduced was because no-one else had done it."

Mr Davia added: "It has shaved seconds off the time it takes when a call comes in."