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Home » News & Events » 2010 » March » BBC Freedom of Information Request on Satellite Navigation

BBC Freedom of Information Request on Satellite Navigation

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Hereford & Worcester Fire and Rescue Service has provided a detailed and timely response to the Freedom of Information request made by the BBC earlier this year (25th January 2010). The request was for data in relation to the number of emergencies where Sat-Nav systems had misdirected Service drivers.

As outlined in our response dated the19th February 2010, the Service does not use ‘Sat-Nav’ systems on fire appliances. However, our records show that in 2009, crews missed targets for attendance due to difficulties in finding the address on 54 occasions.

During 2009 the Service received 13,670 “999” calls at our Control Centre and attended 8,693 emergency Incidents (the difference between the two figures is because sometimes we have more than one 999 call for each incident). From the 8,693 incidents attended, the local attendance targets we set were not met on 54 occasions, due to difficulties in locating the incident addresses. There can be a number of explanations for crews having difficulty in locating an incident. Of the 54 occasions in 2009:

  • 18 were false alarms and there was no incident to find
  • 15 were chimney fires, predominantly in remote properties
  • 11 were because the caller gave the wrong address
  • 8 were to “primary fires” involving property
  • 1 was to an incident that did not have an address location
  • 1 was to an incident we attended in Shropshire

Although our attendance at “primary fires” was only delayed on 9 occasions out of the 8,693 emergencies attended, we would ask for the public’s help in reducing the chances of this occurring in the future;

  • If you call 999 please assist our Control Operators by giving a clear address. Post codes are a great help to us, but remember that in rural areas, a single post code may cover a large geographical area, so any further information on your location will be invaluable. This is especially important if your property is not visible from the road and is accessed via a remote track or long driveway.
  • If you come across an emergency incident whilst driving and are unsure of the address, our Operators will try to assist you to identify your precise location, for example, by referring to landmarks, road junctions or marker post numbers on the motorway.
  • If you live in a rural area, and have a house name rather than a number, and the name is not clearly visible from the road, consider waiting in a conspicuous position for the fire appliance to arrive so that you can direct crews to the scene. Obviously, we would only ask you to do so where it is safe and practical to do so.
  • If you live in a very remote area, and have a Sat-Nav of your own, make a note of the 12 digit map reference number for your address and pass that to us in case of an emergency.

Although the Service does not use Sat-Nav systems, we do have highly advanced computer mapping systems on all front line fire appliances as part of our VMDS (Vehicle Mounted Data Systems).

Mapping systems on the VMDS provides greater detail than that available on domestic Sat-Nav systems, but they also provide crews with a range of additional information including individual building plans, positions of fire hydrants and details of high risk sites.

However, the Service does not rely wholly on electronic systems to locate incidents and the VMDS does not select a route for drivers to follow as a Sat-Nav would. Crews use VMDS mapping and their local knowledge to select the most effective route to an incident taking into account the time of day, local traffic or road closures and weather information, something a Sat-Nav system alone can not do effectively.

However, despite our investment in technology and the time spent by local crews in learning “their patch”, we can only act on the location information we are provided with by the public upon receiving a 999 call.