Firelink or FireLink is a wide area

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system in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

, and

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

for

fire service A fire department (North American English) or fire brigade (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), also known as a fire company, fire authority, fire district, fire and rescue, or fire service in some areas, is an organi ...

s. The system which supports both voice and data communication was designed to replace a patchwork of analogue systems with a modern wider area digital system. It provides new functionality – notably resilience and interoperability with other FRS and

emergency service Emergency services and rescue services are organizations that ensure public safety, security, and health by addressing and resolving different emergencies. Some of these agencies exist solely for addressing certain types of emergencies, while oth ...

s - which previous major incidents have identified as important. Firelink enables fire appliances to be mobilised in response to a

999 999 or triple nine most often refers to: * 999 (emergency telephone number), a telephone number for the emergency services in several countries * 999 (number), an integer * AD 999, a year * 999 BC, a year Media Books * 999 (anthology), ''99 ...

call by voice and data in Scotland, Wales, and London. It became operational in Scotland and Wales in 2010. In the rest of England, mobilisation will be by voice only, as the

FiReControl FiReControl was a project, initiated in the United Kingdom in March 2004, to reduce the number of control rooms used to handle emergency calls for fire services and authorities. Presently there are 46 control rooms in England that handle calls f ...

project to provide new emergency control rooms using Firelink was cancelled in 2010. The key benefits of Firelink include more effective and safer service delivery through clearer voice communication and call group management for incident mobilisation and management; the ability to send data and status codes to/from mobile vehicles – a faster/more accurate medium than voice communication; and, in Wales, Scotland and London, the ability to identify and mobilise the nearest available appliance through an automated vehicle location (AVL) system. As a single comms system operating with standardised equipment across all 57 fire and rescue services across Great Britain, the system will also enhance the services' ability to respond collectively to major incidents by allowing fire and rescue appliances supporting major incidents the ability to speak directly to the control room managing the incident (where ever it may be). Finally, the system is also more resilient and secure and offers inter-interoperability with other blue lights services. The system was developed and built by

Airwave Solutions Airwave Solutions Ltd. is a British mobile communication company that operates the Airwave network, a mobile communications network used by Great Britain's emergency services. The Airwave network is based on the specialist Terrestrial Trunked Rad ...

,Airwave Solutions Limited (accessed 28 April 09)
/ref> it will be part of the Airwave private digital network.DFCLG - Fire and Resilience. Firelink: improved fire and rescue service radio communications (accessed 20 Sep 07)
It is a private, digital, secure,

Terrestrial Trunked Radio Tetra is the common name of many small freshwater characiform fishes. Tetras come from Africa, Central America, and South America, belonging to the biological families Characidae, Alestidae (the "African tetras"), Lepidarchidae, Lebias ...

(TETRA) network, and will replace the many different existing networks commissioned by individual fire and rescue services. In England, the project is part of CLG's fire resilience programme, which also includes the New Dimension programme and FiReControl projects. The New Dimension project has already delivered a range of equipment to the FRS to assist with handling large-scale incidents. The vehicles supplied as part of the New Dimension provision were fitted with the new Firelink digital radios.

References

{{reflist Fire and rescue in the United Kingdom Emergency communication

See also

References