New comms centre a boost for rescue work

THE new fire communications centre in Port Moresby will be the eye for firefighters’ rescue teams when emergencies arise in the capital city.
This new fire communications centre is a boost to the PNG Fire Service that plays a pivotal role by identifying real-time fire emergency zone via satellite feeds when receiving first-hand call through their toll-free numbers.
This is how it works: The call centre, which they call the “catch system”, receives the first-hand caller and then transfers to the second caller to dispatch a team of standby firefighters during an emergencies.
The dispatch team will have a close communication with the operator back at the call centre when moving out of the station to avoid traffic, cue of vehicles, details of the street and take the safest route to arrive on time at the destination.
This information will be supplied by the operator upon receiving live satellite feeds of the city’s traffic and street address.
Fire communications manager Mulina Marley Gima said there are three shifts working 24/7 from 7:30am to 7:30pm, and change over.
He said three shift operators work during day and three during night.
Chief Fire Officer Bill Roo said that since taking the office he had put together ideas to establish this centre and it started functioning smoothly during the Apec meeting last year.
He said the communications centre was a trial to see how effective it could help to combat fire emergencies in the city while plans are underway to link to other fire stations.
Meanwhile, the Alotau provincial government has bought a 10-seater Land Cruiser for their fire station to deal with oad accidens.
Roo said the vehicle cost about K200,000. The funding came from their Provincial Service Improvement Programme funds and District Service Improvement Programme funds to meet the costs.