What happens when you phone 999?

When you dial 999, your call will be answered by an operator from one of the telephone companies, who will ask you which service is required: Fire, Police or Ambulance.

If you need the Fire and Rescue Service in South Wales your call will be passed to a Fire Control Operator based at Lanelay Hall. Calls will normally be answered within 2 to 15 seconds.

The Fire Control Operator will need to get the relevant information from you as quickly and efficiently as possible, so that they can mobilise the crews and fire appliances required.

You will be asked the address of the incident, the nature of the incident (fire, road traffic accident, rescue and so on) and the exact location of the incident you are reporting.

To assist the Operator locate incidents where the caller is unable to give an exact address or any significant landmarks, the caller’s telephone number can be traced to identify their location. This system can also be used to find hoax callers.

Using the latest computerised equipment and touch screens, the Control Operator will select the initial number of fire appliances to send to the incident, and the Fire Station(s) are alerted to ‘turn out’.

Audible alarms and lights are triggered at the Stations, informing the on-duty firefighters that they are needed. In the case of retained Fire Stations, a signal is sent to the alerters that are carried by the retained firefighters, instructing them to report to duty immediately.

The address of the incident is automatically sent to the Fire Station printer, officers’ pagers, and is displayed on the data to cabs computer screens in the fire appliances.

The Fire Control Room also receives emergency calls from the Police and Ambulance Services, members of the public who report incidents via Fire Stations and through automatic fire alarms.

What happens next?

The appliances sent to the incident will use their onboard radio to inform Control the name of the Officer-in-Charge, the number of crew on board, and the address of the incident.

Fire Control staff will monitor the incident, via radio messages and respond to any request that may be made.

These could range from requests for additional appliances, the attendance of other emergency services, key holders, utility companies or other personnel.

Sometimes requests are received for chemical information, which is supplied from the Control Room, using a specialised database.

The control operators, who may be dealing with many other incidents at the time, deal with all of these.

As well as taking emergency calls Control staff are responsible for the upkeep of computer records, administration, training, statistics and a number of other duties that help in the efficient running of an emergency Control Room.

Communicating with firefighters

South Wales Fire and Rescue Service operates three radio channels within the fire appliances (primary, secondary and data channels). All officers and appliances attending incidents can keep the Control Room informed of where they are and what they are doing.

All requests for further assistance, for example more appliances, extra crews, specialist equipment etc, are monitored by Fire Control so they have a complete overview of all available resources in South Wales, and the neighbouring counties, at any given time.

To ensure that all details, such as road and place names, are communicated accurately, Fire Control Operators use the internationally recognised NATO phonetic alphabet .