M2GX

M2GX is the official Home Office radio call sign allocated to Strathclyde Fire Brigade.
It was previously allocated to Glasgow Fire Service (who like most other controls in the country didn’t use the M2 and just called it GX) until Local Government reorganisation in 1975 when A and B divisions control in the Central Fire Station, Ingram Street, Glasgow continued to use it. In 1975 there were also 4 other controls:-

Charlie Control in ‘C’ Division Headquarters, 5 Thornhill, Johnstone
AF Control in Ayr Fire Station, 2 Station Road, Ayr. (this control room opened in 1963)
FN Control in Hamilton
Foxtrot Control in Clydebank Fire Station

Charlie Control was in the room on the left as you walked into ‘C’ Division Headquarters, which was probably the Western Fire Area Control room before 1975 and would have had an M2?? Call sign of it’s own but I always knew it as Charlie Control.

In March 1978 rationalisation of Controls proposed that the five controls would become two with one at Johnstone and the other at the new Cowcaddens headquarters now being build. This never happened.
What happened (over a period of two years) was that Charlie and Foxtrot Controls combined to form Juliet Control (J for Joint Control) at Johnstone and then the other three (Glasgow (GX), Ayr (AF) and Hamilton (FN)) moved to Johnstone and it was known as Control. It would appear that the Home Office as governing body told Strathclyde Fire Brigade that it couldn't just call it Control and they would need to use it's call-sign so it is now called M2GX

In 1975 the appliance Call Signs were made up of one 1 letter and two or three   numbers eg C73:- Station, C7 (Greenock) 3 (pump with over 45' ladder (the first appliance which was a Pump Escape)) or C113:- Station C11(Gourock) 3 (retained pump with over 45' ladder (the first appliance which was a Pump Escape). If Control was calling a station they would Say "Control to station C11, so as not to confuse it with appliance C11(One of Johnstone's pumps.) which would invariably answer if they were out.

Stations A1,A2,A3,B1,B2,C1,C11,D2,D13,E4,E16,F7,F24,F51 etc.

Appliance Type

Johnstone is to become the nerve centre for firefighting in Strathclyde.
And a Paisley computer firm have won a £400,000 contract to supply equipment.
The new communication system will cost a total of 32 million and make the region’s fire fighters the most efficient and fastest in the world. It will save lives and property.
Johnstone was chosen because of its central location. Around 50 people will man the new control centre, which will go into operation in June next year.
The heart of the system will be two Data General SL40 computers and a single MV6000 computer. Data General’s Scottish headquarters are at Trident House in Renfrew Road, Paisley, and it was the local sales team who won the contract.

Report:Paul Massey Photographs:Hector Lyle

Guests Assemble

Platform Party Assemble

Introductory Remarks
Councillor Gerald McGrath, DL, FBCO, DCLP, JP.
Vice Chairman, Police and Fire Committee

Opening Ceremony and Unveiling of Commemorative Plaque
Councillor James Irvine, JP
Chairman, Police and Fire Committee

Dedication
Rev. Peter Houston
Strathclyde Fire Brigade Chaplain

Presentation of Visitors’ Book
Mr. Robert Calderwood, LLB
Chief Executive, Strathclyde Regional Council

Remarks
Firemaster Clive B. Halliday, MIFireE
Strathclyde Fire Brigade

Vote of Thanks
Councillor Andrew Ferguson, JP
Chairman, Buildings and Property Committee

Tour of Control

Reception

Buffet Lunch

Departures

In the early part of 1800 when a fire occurred during the night, the watchman nearest it raised the alarm by sounding a rattle which consisted of a set of big clappers made of loose pieces of wood which were tied together in such a manner as to give a particularly loud rattling noise when shaken. At the same time as they were sounded he shouted "Fire" mentioning where it had taken place. This signal was instantly followed by the other watchmen, so that information was immediately communicated to the constable of the night in the Police Office, who instantly dispatched two officers with drums, to beat the Fire alarm, while the watchmen in whose stations any of the firemen or carters lived, lost no time in getting them out of bed.
In Glasgow in 1873 a system of street alarms was devised by a fireman in Fire Brigade Headquarters, College Street, Glasgow. The apparatus was simple and consisted of iron boxes which were placed at strategic points throughout the city. When the glass cover of the alarm was broken the fire brigade were immediately summoned to that location. A further refinement was introduced to this system around 1890. When the brigade arrived at the street alarm, a small piece of apparatus which they brought with them was hooked into an iron eye in the wall, immediately below the alarm box, and a small pin taken from this portable apparatus was then inserted in a hole in the push knob allowing the box to be converted for the time being into a telegraph station, communicating with the headquarters, to which the superintendent of the brigade could send messages desiring an additional force or supplementary appliances.
This street fire alarm system was the first devised for public use to alert the fire brigade, in the United Kingdom and was hailed as an amazing advancement in services to the public. This system of alerting the fire brigade remained in use until the early 1960’s.
Between 1930 and 1939, a number of small experimental schemes were set up, the majority operating on either medium or high frequencies.
There were two main reasons for their limited success-firstly, the wavelengths employed were unsuitable for communication to and from the vehicles and secondly, the small number of wave lengths available for general use severely restricted the allocation for schemes of this kind. The development of very high frequencies radically altered this picture by suddenly making a large number of channels available for short range communication services. These very high frequency channels were fortunately found to be remarkably effective for local mobile two way radio telephone schemes.
At this time with the rapid extension of the automatic telephone system and in particular with the introduction of dialled "999" emergency calls, the needs for street alarms lessened steadily.
The introduction of radio communications added considerably to the efficiency of the Fire Brigade in that from the moment an appliance left the fire station it was in full communication with the Brigade control room. Radio eliminated the previous unavoidable loss of time which was incurred in having to speak to control through the medium of the street fire alarm system or telephone.

When local government was reorganised in Scotland in 1975, Strathclyde Fire Brigade had five control rooms covering six divisions. These control rooms were situated as follows:

"A" & "B" Division—Glasgow;

"C" Division—Johnstone;

"B" Division—Ayr;

"E" Division—Hamillton;

"F’ Division—Clydebank;

A study was carried out to determine the most efficient way of handling the Brigade resources. The result of this study showed that a single control at Johnstone, using a standard mobilising system driven by a computer-aided command and control system would meet the Brigade’s needs.
After consultation with the Department of Architectural and Related Services work started in January 1980 to convert the premises at Johnstone which had previously been used as stores accommodation.
The divisional controls were amalgamated at Johnstone over a phased period and the various types of mobilising systems in use replaced by an "RFL Firecat" mobilising system. "Firecat" uses radio as a primary bearer and Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) as a secondary bearer.
A command and control system is interphased to the communications system.
Three interlinked minicomputers form the heart of the system. Attached to these are interphases to both micro computer controlled sub systems and external computers. All communications lines are attached to the three main computers via an intelligent data port switch which allows lines to be switched from computer to computer, either singularly or in blocks.

Main Operational Computer

The main function of the operational computer is to assist an operator from receipt of an incident call, providing information relevant to each stage of mobilising through to the termination of an incident.

Standby Computer

The standby computer acts as a constant backup medium for live data on the operational computer and to constantly monitor the state of the primary operational computer ready to take over control of the system should failure occur.

Management Information System

This system is updated periodically from the operational computer and from terminals distributed throughout the Brigade.
A resource availability system provides data communication between vehicle mounted data encoder units (button boxes) and the Brigade Control System computer. This communication utilises the Brigade V.H.F., radio network as a bearer circuit for data signal transmission greatly reducing the amount of voice traffic.
A wall display shows availability and status of all appliances within Strathclyde area and enables the supervising officer to determine the areas of depleted cover and deploy resources accordingly via the main computer system.
An interface connects between the operational computer and the Strathclyde Regional Council Road Departments computer allowing a "Greenwave" traffic light system to be used throughout the Greater Glasgow area.
The central core of the building is the control room which is manned 24 hours a day. Around this are offices and other ancillary accommodation facilitating movement and supervision.
Air conditioning is provided to the Control Room, Viewing area and Computer areas with a comprehensive system of extract ventilation serving all other areas.

Strathclyde’s command and control project

Work on the procurement of a replacement command and control system for the brigade began in 1996. This procurement process was seen as the chance to provide the brigade, not only with a replacement command and control system, but with an integrated command, control and communications system (IC3S) utilising cutting edge technology to supply the most efficient and reliant systems available.
After extensive research, tendering and evaluation, the contract as prime contractor for the new IC3S was awarded on the 30th November 1998 to British Aerospace Defence Systems Limited (BAe).
The IC3S is currently undergoing installation and testing at the brigade’s new command and control complex at Johnstone. As prime contractor BAe are responsible for the various sub systems being supplied, in addition to their own Fire Information Manager (FIM) system.
Integrating with FIM are the following systems:
•               Geographical Information System (GIS ) supplied by PAFEC now SER Ltd, Stapleford, Nottingham.
•               Communications systems by Multitone Electronics Plc, Livingstone and Thorcom Systems, Worcester.
•               Central RAS replacement by BBN Communications Ltd, Poole, Dorset.
•               MIS by GEC Marconi now BAe Systems Leicester.
•               Wall display by HARP Systems, Gosport, Hampshire.

Although the core of all these systems is suitable for most brigades a detailed functional design stage (lasting four months), was undertaken between BAe and the brigade to provide the added functionality required.
Command and control system FIM
The FIM system provides control staff with comprehensive incident and resource management facilities whilst utilising user-friendly front end screens. The system is based on the Windows NT operating system running on Sun Enterprise 450 servers with Dell Optillex Pentium clients. In addition to the two main and one fallback server the brigade is also installing a separate training server. Operators can access a number of facilities from their workstations, including the Management Information System (MIS), the Geographic Information System (GIS) and general office facilities.
Functionality within the FIM system being provided to the brigade includes automatic pre-alerting of resources on receipt of an emergency call by utilising EISEC information from British Telecom. In addition to this, FIM will interface with the GIS system to provide a dynamic routing facility which provides a real time calculation and prioritisation of resources required. This will ensure that the appropriate appliances are proposed which will enable them to reach the incident in the quickest possible times.
Mobilising and communications systems
The new command and control (FlM) system will make use of a Multitone/Thorcom newly installed four site data radio system for primary mobilising. Mobilising data at 9600 Baud is transmitted via channels on the existing L700 microwave link network, which is also used for the brigade’s mobile voice system. This is then broadcast to the mobilising equipment at fire stations using the GD92 1200 Baud protocol. As a secondary bearer (which can also be configured as primary) the brigade uses ISDN 2 to all wholetime and retained stations, and PSTN to volunteer stations. The ISDNs are used for both mobilising and administrative data.
In order to provide resilience both at main and at a new standby control situated at Johnstone Fire Station, the brigade installed separately a new ‘Delta’ microwave link between main and standby controls and the main radio site at Sergeants Law near Paisley. This link allows access between both controls by a triangulated link allowing additional FIM, GIS, RAS and comms servers to be located at standby control. These can be accessed via the link allowing both sites to work separately or together in real time providing the brigade not only with one of the most up to date main controls in Europe, but also a standby control utilising exactly the same equipment and having the same capabilities.
Geographic Information System
The Strathclyde GIS system interfaces with RAS, MIS and command and control to give a powerful operational and statistical tool. The system is not only capable of displaying graphically the location of resources, but is also capable of calculating the effect of road closures etc in utilising the dynamic routing facility for resource proposals. From a strategic viewpoint the GIS will also be used for analytical purposes allowing the brigade to target areas of concern within community safety, such as malicious calls, fire safety campaigns etc.
Management Information System
The MIS supplied by BAe Systems Leicester provides powerful operational capabilities by interfacing with both command and control and GIS. Terminals located at each wholetime and retained fire station allow pre planning of resources and equipment, details of which are fed into the command and control system.
Wall display system
As part of the contract Harp Ltd have installed a rear projected wall display within the new control room. The display, measuring 5m by 3m and comprising of six interlinked screens, is PC controlled by supervisor workstations.
The new integrated command, control and communications system, together with the new control centre will place Strathclyde Fire Brigade at the forefront of technology within emergency service control rooms, and further improve the level of service delivery to the public for which it is responsible.
<PHOTO> As part of the contract Harp Ltd have installed a rear projected wall display within the new control room
(Fire Times April/May 2000 Volume 3 No. 3. Page 15)

Opened by Her Majesty The Queen

Thursday 5th July 2001

The New Command & Control Centre

Strathclyde Fire Brigade’s new emergency Command & Control Centre situated in Johnstone is the most modern and technologically advanced in the British Fire Service. It’s emergency call handling and fire appliance mobilising systems enable the Brigade to provide a faster and more effective response to calls for assistance throughout the Strathclyde area.
The new Integrated Command, Control and Communications System which has been installed in a new purpose built structure has placed Strathclyde Fire Brigade at the forefront of technology within Emergency Service Control Rooms, and further improved the Ievel of service delivery to the public for which it is responsible.
The new building and systems went "live" on 12th February 2001 in a seamless transition from the old systems in an adjacent building. As planned, no interruption to, or disruption of, any activities was experienced, and the highly trained staff who handle all emergency calls and mobilise the Brigade’s appliances 24 hours a day now have the most up-to-date tools to enable them to provide a more effective and efficient response to all emergencies.
The 67 Brigade Control staff form a dedicated and skilled team. They are adept at handling a wide variety of incidents and ensure that he public receive an immediate service at all times. The wide variance in the type of risk within the geographical area of Strathclyde places great demands on the staff who support incident attendances including forest fires, aircraft accidents, incidents at nuclear installations, domestic fires and road traffic accidents, which all require a unique and immediate response to ensure successful outcomes.
The professionalism of the staff has often been recognised and on two recent notable occasions formal awards have been made to individuals where they have used their skills in giving fire survival guidance on the telephone to members of the public trapped in fires, substantially assisting in their successful rescue.
It is a Brigade priority to continue to develop and support the systems and environment which enable the Control staff to consistently deliver this professional and compassionate service to all those who make contact for assistance.
(from the official opening programme.)

By Paul Sharp

On Friday March 16 a major part of Strathclyde Fire Brigade’s history was retired from active service. The Firecat mobilising system was decommissioned at a ceremony attended by Communications engineers and Control staff past and present. The final coup de grace was performed by communications engineer Jim Gardiner. Jim was ably assisted by former colleague, now retired, Charles Rodgers, both of whom participated in the original installation.
Manufactured by RFL Electronics, it was installed in 1982 to mobilise the former ‘D’ Division. The system was the preferred choice of the Brigade’s project team at the time and was hailed as the cutting edge of its day. The system replaced sirens with high-tech pagers, and by 1985 it had been installed across the entire Brigade by Comms engineers.
The equipment ran continuously and carried out well over 1 million mobilisations in its illustrious career. Its serviceability and resilience endeared it to Control staff and Comms engineers alike. Its replacement, the Thorcom MDS700 system, has a lot to live up to but should serve the Brigade well over the forthcoming years.
Many stations throughout the Brigade still have the Firecat’s famous blue cabinets, only now they don’t have to have a saucer of milk put down for them at night!
As the Brigade moves into the new millennium let us salute the Firecat system and the part it played in mobilising fire crews and saving lives over the years.
Firecat 1982-2001…remembered with pride.
<PHOTO> a ‘tearful’ GFCO Gillian Thompson (left) is consoled by Charlie Rodgers, as GFCO Linda Coughlan, Comms Engineer Jim Gardner and SFCO Laura Kemp have mixed emotions.
(Semper Paratus, Issue No.6 Summer 2001. Page 7.)