Firelink or FireLink is a wide area

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...

system in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

, and

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

for

fire service A fire department (American English) or fire brigade (Commonwealth English), also known as a fire authority, fire district, fire and rescue, or fire service in some areas, is an organization that provides fire prevention and fire suppression se ...

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 services - 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 Books * ''999'' (anthology) or ''999: T ...

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 fr ...

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 Ra ...

,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 Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA; formerly known as Trans-European Trunked Radio), a European standard for a trunked radio system, is a professional mobile radio and two-way transceiver specification. TETRA was specifically designed for use by go ...

(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 The New Dimension programme, sometimes referred to as the New Dimension or New Dimensions, was started by the Department for Communities and Local Government in the UK, for fire and rescue services in England and Wales, following the September ...

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