Norfolk Fire & Rescue Service control room joins forces with Suffolk and Hertfordshire
Norfolk's residents will benefit from accelerated response times and greater resilience during periods of high demand from their fire service thanks to a new partnership between the control rooms in Norfolk, Suffolk and Hertfordshire fire and rescue services and Motorola Solutions.
The new Motorola Solutions Guardian Hub control room makes it possible to jointly manage emergency call handling, dispatch crews and coordinate incidents between the three counties. The hub is the first formal partnership of its kind between three UK fire service control rooms.
The majority of emergency fire calls for the county will still be taken by Norfolk control room staff, but the new hub will allow calls to be seamlessly diverted to Suffolk and Hertfordshire control rooms at times of high demand, with Norfolk providing the same mutual aid to the two counties in return.
The cloud-based command centre platform uses Motorola Solutions' technology to empower the three fire and rescue services (FRS), covering more than 100 stations and a population of over 2.5 million people to jointly manage 999 calls, dispatch crews and track incidents in mutual aid scenarios.
"During extreme weather events and major fires, it's crucial that we can share call handling and frontline resources with neighbouring FRSs," said Scott Norman, Deputy Chief Fire Officer at Norfolk FRS. "The system gives us visibility into our partners' ongoing incidents to mobilise our own crews faster and respond more effectively. Ultimately, we can provide a better service for our community, when and where they need it."
"Emergencies aren't restricted by borders, and our responses shouldn't be either," said Darren Cook, Assistant Chief Fire Officer at Hertfordshire FRS. "Working closely with Norfolk and Suffolk is already leading to more efficient and effective responses, and the chance to share knowledge on how we're using this new technology has been incredibly valuable. Within hours of the hub going live, we saw the benefits, as Suffolk FRS operators took calls and managed dispatch for Hertfordshire FRS during a large structure fire incident."
Bringing control room operations into a single shared hub means the three services can collaborate more closely during major incidents, reducing duplication and strengthening resilience. The platform also removes the need for each fire and rescue service to maintain separate IT systems, helping cut costs and easing pressure on control staff during busy periods.
"Our work can often be a matter of life or death - we needed a system which would hit the ground running and enable entirely new ways of working with our neighbouring FRSs," said Jon Lacey, chief fire officer at Suffolk FRS. "Motorola Solutions fit the bill perfectly. The Hub model has already proven its value with call handlers able to manage extremely high call volumes and allowing each FRS to seamlessly provide additional support when needed. We've also found unexpected use cases, such as allowing the full control room to take part in planned training sessions, without disrupting active operations."
"Fire and rescue services are there for their communities, but the pressure they face continues to grow," said David Shorland, U.K. and Ireland sales director, Motorola Solutions. "Guardian Hub gives services a better way to connect, coordinate and respond. With agencies increasingly required to do more with less, we're providing a resilient, scalable model to help serve and protect communities."
