Northamptonshire
leading the way in Hydrant Management
Imass Hydra System Goes Live at Fire & Rescue
When
a Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue fire appliance is en
route to attend one of the 12,000
emergency incidents that occur in Northamptonshire every
year, for many of the most critical incidents that any
Fire Service attends one of the first questions that the
crew manager must answer is where to find water.
A
fire appliance holds 1800 litres.
Using modern day high pressure pumps this water
supply can be expended in less than 6 minutes. To ensure
Fire crews have sufficient water supplies in those
critical first minutes of a potentially life saving
incident, Northamptonshire Fire & Rescue Service
maintain over 14,000 hydrants at points throughout the
County.
Management
of this network of hydrants in the 915 square miles of
Northamptonshire is led by Fire & Rescue Water Officer
– Chris Homer assisted by maintenance technicians Colin
Gosling and Michael Higginson. Chris and her team are now putting the finishing touches to a
new system for hydrant management, which they and a team
from Fire & Rescue Information Group have been
implementing for the last 12 months.
Following
a 6 month selection process, the team have been working
with a strategic partner, Imass Limited of Newcastle, to
implement their Hydra system.
Northants
Fire & Rescue Engineering Officer, Ken Jones,
explained the selection of the Imass system
"The
management of hydrants has always been recognised as
critical in the operation of Fire & rescue
Services. Here in Northants the rapid expansion of
housing developments and industrial properties was
challenging our ability to feed the information through to
the operational crews. We needed a system that would
not only make ownership of 14,000 hydrants more
manageable, but also would incorporate new technology as a
means of gathering hydrant information faster - and that
means confirmation of location, the type of hydrant, the
inspection schedule and any repairs that are required,
through to the delivery of the location, type and status
to the emergency response crews. We believe Imass
have provided us with this solution and I congratulate the
project team on all the hard work they have done to
successfully bring the Hydra system into
operation."
The
Fire Service IT System’s team was lead by IT Project
Officer Alison Percival, who expanded upon some of the
technology incorporated within the Imass solution.
"The
data is now stored in an SQL database with a more user
friendly look and feel to the display screens.
Hydrant locations and mains sizes are now displayed on a
map using different symbols to denote the type of hydrant
and whether there is an outstanding defect, together with
more information concerning the location. The
Hydrant Technicians now use tablet PCs to record details
of defects whilst out on inspections and the information
is updated automatically on the system on their return to
base. The data cleansing exercise is almost complete
and once the location of all hydrants has been verified
then information from Hydra will be used on the MDTs and
will be updated using wireless technology for speedier
delivery. A future development is to make this
information available to Stations via the intranet."
Andy
Kerr, Imass Account Manager, sent this message to
Northants FRS:
“We
would like to thank Northants for selecting Imass as their
partner for hydrant and water management and for the
procurement of our Hydra system. This system is now in
operation with 20 Fire Services within the UK and we
believe it provides Northants Fire & Rescue with a
fully integrated solution proven within many of the UK’s
Fire & Rescue Authorities. We look forward to working
with Northants to further enhance and develop this product
as a key strategy tool to delivering community safety to
the citizens of Northamptonshire.”
Chris
Homer summed up the advantages of the Imass Hydra
solution:
“The
Imass Hydra system gives me a precise location of each
Hydrant and its associated main sizes.
It will identify hydrants with outstanding faults
and give a graphic display of new installations in
progress. We
are already receiving interest from other Brigades.
The after service support from Imass is very good
but the successful roll-out of this project could not have
been achieved without the support of the Fire and Rescue
Service IT Department”
For
further information on this article please contact the
Information & Communications Technology Group at
County Fire Service Headquarters - Moulton Way,
Northampton 01604 797000.
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