Northern Ireland launches fire service mobile system

The technology will provide the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS) with information about hazardous materials, building plans, hydrant locations and critical risk data, the department said. It hopes the new technology, accessible via a mobile data terminal to be installed on fire engines, will be a "significant improvement" on the current paper based system. Communications company Arqiva is responsible for the design and supply of the system hardware, while 3TC Software will supply the software application, which is already used by a number of fire and rescue services in Britain. "The introduction of this new mobile data system represents an investment of £1.6m, which will ensure that the fire and rescue service has the most up to date equipment to carry out their valuable life saving work," said public safety minister Michael McGimpsey. "The new system will improve NIFRS' operational response to many incidents including fires, road traffic collisions and other specialist rescues," he added. The investment in the new technology is "in addition" to previous spending of £1.5m on a Tetra digital radio system for Northern Ireland's fire service and the investment of £700,000 on the upgrade of the command and control mobilising system, ProCAD. Acting chief fire officer Louis Jones, said: "The capital investment in these three systems has enabled the NIFRS to develop an integrated system that improves the speed of information between fire crews on the fire appliances and personnel in the regional control centre."