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South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service chooses Command Support System |
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The South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service has selected VectorCommand’s Command Support System to pilot the introduction of a new command and control system within its headquarters command centre and in its mobile command vehicle. Roy Thompson, the service’s Commander, Information and Communications Technology, was asked about his reasons for choosing the system and his vision for improving integrated emergency command within the state.
What is the size of the Metropolitan Fire Service of South Australia?
The South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service (MFS) was established in 1866. The MFS is based in the City of Adelaide, capital of South Australia and provides services to 17 other regional centres throughout the state. The MFS serves a population of approximately 1.3 million and a total area of 30,000 km2. The MFS employs more than 1000 fulltime and retained staff across 36 Stations (19 metropolitan, 17 regional) in South Australia. The MFS maintains a fleet of 65 frontline firefighting appliances including heavy urban general purpose pumps, rescue/pumps and aerial appliances and utilises over 20 specialist pods for CBRN, USAR, specialist rescue etc.
What are the key fire and flooding issues/threats faced by the service?
The MFS is primarily an urban fire service but has mutual aid relationships with the Country Fire Service (CFS) and the State Emergency Service (SES). With these relationships; the MFS contributes to the Prevention, Preparation, Response and Recovery of bushfires, flooding and storm damage as well as urban fires, hazardous materials incidents including CBRN, and specialist rescues.
How many major incidents does the service attend every year?
The MFS responded to about 28,000 incidents in 2006/07. This included about 7,000 fire alarm calls, 3,300 grass fires, 2,600 rescues, 1,300 vehicle fires, 1,100 Hazardous Materials Incidents and 1,700 structure fires, 43 of which required ‘greater alarm’ responses.
How many longer duration incidents such as wildfires does the service attend?
In the last few years the MFS has assisted other emergency services with 3 or 4 longer duration events each year. This includes interstate response to bushfires by fire-fighters and Incident Management Team (IMT) personnel, a 12-day flooding event and many 3 – 14 day bushfires.
How does the service work with the Country Fire Service in an integrated command situation?
The MFS and CFS, as well as the State Emergency Service, are very practised at integrating each other’s personnel into Incident Management Teams. This is crucial in staffing longer duration incidents. This has been enhanced with the MFS now providing statewide Call Receipt and Dispatch services for the three agencies using the same information systems.
How long do wildfire incidents run for – from shortest to longest duration – and how many people typically are deployed? Can you give some idea of the scale and duration and the issues and challenges of this type of incident?
While not professing to be a bushfire expert, my experience has been with bushfires that run from a couple of hours to 14 days; however they may go a lot longer. A longer duration incident will typically involve 200 – 300 people in the field, with another 100 in various support roles and coordination centres. These people will need to be rotated in regular shifts of 12-hour duration and replaced every 3 – 5 days. Some of the major challenges of these incidents are the logistics involved in feeding and quartering these people, as well as ensuring a common understanding of strategies and tactics is understood by all. Also of paramount importance is ensuring the media and the community are hearing one consistent message.
What are the service’s objectives/plans for upgrading its Command and Control systems, both fixed and mobile (for which Command Support System – CSS - has been selected)?
A high-level objective of the MFS’ Strategic Plan is to ‘develop and maintain communication and information management systems that contribute to our organisational goals and safeguard emergency workers’.
A key to operational safety is obtaining and presenting current and pre-planned incident information so that sound operational decisions can be made and effectively communicated. By sharing a common platform across mobile and fixed interfaces, Command Support System will ensure that the relevant stakeholders are sharing the same information in real time and effectively communicating information and decisions vertically throughout the incident command structure.
Why was the Command Support System selected? What features appealed and why?
The CSS was chosen to be piloted in the MFS due to its strong foundation of a sound decisionmaking cycle and its highly intuitive interface and ease of integration with other existing systems such as Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) systems. It is imperative that command systems are highly intuitive as they are not used everyday but when they are used they must be used effectively and efficiently.
How do you think the system will be used to benefit the service’s operations?
While some of the information such as response plans, resources, mapping and Standard Operating Procedures are all currently available; CSS brings all this information and much more into one ‘user friendly’ interface. This will greatly enhance the use and integration of existing information and pre-plans at incidents as well as adding valuable real-time information and collaboration tools. Additionally, incidents will be able to be ‘replayed’ as part of debriefings; demonstrating the information that was available at the time decisions were made. This would also be invaluable during coronial investigations.
How will it work in conjunction with IMT, AIIMs etc?
CSS will be used to collaborate between the State Coordination Centre – Fire and mobile Incident Command Vehicles, then in turn between Incident Controllers and Sector Commanders. The Australian Inter-service Incident Management System (AIIMS) organisational structures and roles will be prepopulated into CSS, enabling functions to expand to meet the needs of the Incident Management Team. I need to reiterate that at this stage CSS is being piloted by the MFS and will need to be adopted by our partner agencies if it is to be fully rolled out across South Australia. An added bonus will be its ability to integrate with Vector Command’s Tactical Command Trainer - Fire. I am currently fitting out our old Incident Command Vehicle with a Smart board so that it can be used to train people in CSS using the Tactical Command Trainer – Fire system to simulate incidents. It is envisaged that CSS will be integrated with our CAD system and our Rostering and Training Databases, so that incidents are automatically generated, resource availability and locations are known as well as individual skills that are available for deployment. |
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