Retained Firefighter Callout Systems

The Retained Firefighter Callout System is a radio pager based system to enable the Command and Control section at Fire Brigade Headquarters or a Regional Control Centre to mobilise the personnel (crew/s) of a remote fire station.

A large proportion of firefighters in the United Kingdom are employed by the Fire Service on a retained basis. They live and work within a short distance of the fire station, nominally five kilometres and respond to mobilising calls as required.

The modern retained firefighter callout system has developed from a specification published by the UK Home Office, called MG-4. It is based on an open paging format known as POCSAG that is in use by many national paging service providers throughout the world.

The fixed elements of a retained firefighter callout system are a radio transmitter, a paging encoder and a suitable standby power arrangement in case of mains power failure. In the mal unit, the RFCS-2, these various modules are housed in a 19” rack mountable 2U high enclosure that is 400mm deep.

The RFCS-2 is triggered to operate by other station equipment that receives signals from the Command and Control Centre.

On operation, the RFCS-2 sends a paging call to one or more teams of firefighters who respond by coming to the fire station and crewing one or more fire appliances.