Improving Emergency Response Times at 22 South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue sites

3tc supplies South Yorkshire FRS with its MODAS Professional software, a high performance mobile data system optimised to deliver operational efficiency through the use of robust real time communications. MODAS provides access to safety critical information, for example risk information such as if the site has known hazardous materials; as well as planning the most effective route to the scene of an emergency.

MODAS, which ensures effective communication between the Control Room and appliances both when mobile and at their home station, requires GPS to operate and as a GPS signal is not always readily available inside buildings, fire crews were wasting valuable time, sometimes minutes, gaining a lock on GPS after they had left the fire station. Additionally, the Control Room lost visibility of the appliances when they were inside the station.

Identifying an opportunity to improve response times to incidents and provide visibility of appliances at all times, 3tc approached Chronos to supply a solution to bring GPS inside the stations. Chronos, who has being supplying and installing GPS repeaters for both military and civilian applications for the last 22 years, set up a proof of concept installation at one of the F&R stations to demonstrate how a repeater brings the GPS signal indoors. Following the successful demonstration, Chronos installed GPS repeater solutions in line with Ofcom legal requirements, in 21 appliance bays during a three-week period.

Duncan Smith, Business Development Manager at Chronos said, “GPS receivers fitted on fire appliances that have not been required to move outside for several days may not work immediately or may give misleading results when vehicles leave the buildings. The problem is easily solved with a GPS repeater solution which enables all receivers to function correctly, no matter how long they have been kept inside and out of view of the satellites.” He added, “Every second is critical so permanent connection back to central systems improves response times and information flows.”

Nikki Cooper, Project Manager, ran the project and stated, “It was a pleasure to work with Chronos and South Yorkshire FRS. The project ran smoothly due to timely and informative communications between all parties and as such, we have delivered a significant improvement for South Yorkshire FRS.”