Address: Whitegates, Hethersett, NR9 3DN  This is the Service's Control Room, managing all the calls for the County of Norfolk

Contact us

If you need a school visit we target these at Year 2 for Key Stage 1,  Year 5 for Key Stage 2 and Year 8 for Key Stage 3. If you have someone who is fire-setting and wish to discuss this with one of our advisors please contact us. We are sometimes also able to attend Community events but this will depend on resources, and we tend to target this to priority areas of our service. We do always look forward to hearing from you from you with any other queries.”

This section contains notes written by the crews of the Control Room.

The primary function of our 999 Communications and Control centre is to accept Emergency calls and ensure that the mobilisation of the appropriate resources takes place as quickly and efficiently as possible. We aim to answer 95% of our calls within 5 seconds and mobilise resources within 60 seconds

The Control room is located at the Fire Service Headquarters which is in the small village of Hethersett.

The Control room is staffed 24 hours a day/7 days a week/365 days a year. There are four watches Red, White, Blue, and Green. Each Watch consists of a Watch Manager, a Crew Manager and two full time Firefighter (control) operators and one part time Firefighter (control) operator per watch

They work a revolving shift system as follows:

Day 1           0900 - 1800

Day 2           0900 - 1800

Day 3           1800 - 0900

Day 4           1800 - 0900

Day 5-8        Rota Days

Norfolk Fire and Rescue are proactive in offering flexible working. Therefore we have many other shift patterns in operation.

Could you be a Firefighter (Control)

There are no specific educational qualifications requirements for a Firefighter (Control) post, although computer literacy is an advantage. All potential Candidates will undergo extensive selection tests, apart from these, one of the most important attributes for a staff is the ability to remain calm and perform efficiently whilst under pressure and during what can be extremely stressful conditions.

Salary Scale

The current starting salary for a Firefighter (Control) is £20,099 p.a. increasing to £20,935 after induction training, rising to £26,790 once Competent, this period is variable between individuals.

What happens when you dial 999?

When you dial 999 you will be transferred to a BT operator who will ask you which Emergency Service you require. If you require the Fire and Rescue Service you will currently be transferred to your local Fire and Rescue Control Room. 

When making a 999 call it is important that you remain calm to pass on the nature and location of the incident to the operator taking your call. If you hear sirens in the distance, do not hang up until you are told to do so. This siren could be going to a different incident!

We receive calls from many sources as well as the fixed and mobile telephone networks. These can come from other Emergency Services and Alarm Collecting Centres.

Examples are:-

-Ambulance

-Police

-Coastguard

-Air traffic Control

-Alarm collecting centres

-RSPCA

Once a call is received and the appropriate resources despatched the Control staff work very closely with the crews on the fire ground using voice and data communications, all front line fire appliances and Officer cars are fitted with Automatic vehicle location systems, Mobile Data Terminals and Mobile phones,           (Include picture of MDT/PDA)

The Control staff will immediately action any requests from the incident commander, this could be informing or requesting other agencies, sending further appliances to an incident or advising senior Officers of escalating incidents.

Control staff are also responsible for co-ordinating appliances, personnel and equipment at every incident we are requested to attend.

The total number of calls last year was 20,763, which equates to an average of 56 calls in a 24 hour period. This takes into account that some days the numbers are less and other days they can be high. This is usual in spate conditions such as flash floods or the grass fire season.

Norfolk Fire & Rescue Service uses a computerised call handling and despatch system which enables staff to:

• Identify a Callers address from a landline.

• Track fire appliances and Officers cars to determine the nearest Appliance.

• Locate an area to within a 300 m radius of the caller using just a Mobile telephone number.

Due to Norfolk’s rural nature we deal with many other incidents other than fires, these are known as Special Service Emergency. They include:

Road Traffic collisions

Chemical Incidents

Aircraft Incidents

Water Rescues

Railway Incidents

Animal Rescues

Flooding

Lift Rescues

These are just a few calls we respond to but do to the unpredictable nature of the fire service we could be called to anything!

Every call we take and all subsequent action is automatically recorded. This recorded information can be used as evidence and persons convicted of making a False Alarm Malicious call will be prosecuted. Sending Fire appliances to false call outs wastes valuable time in responding to real emergencies and could cost lives. If the malicious call is made from a mobile phone there are special arrangements in place with the airtime suppliers for the originating phone to be barred from the network.

During quiet times when control staff are not dealing with Operational incidents they are busy dealing with administration work and maintaining competencies and providing  resilience to the control staff at Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue service through a new efficient working arrangement. .

How to Find the Station