Firefighters report the city's brand-new, state-of-the-art fire control centre is just as good as advertised.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Teams from the Rural Fire Service and Fire and Rescue NSW got their first chance to use the North Western Area Command Centre in their first-ever district exercise for the facility.
The fire control centre was packed with the staff of a simulated incident management team, testing how the facility would operate in a crisis.
District manager Inspector Bron Waters said it was a valuable opportunity to try out the $9.9 million facility, in conditions where a mistake wouldn't mean disaster.
READ MORE:
She said the Fire Control Centre was "excellent" and "state-of-the-art".
"There's nothing worse than people's lives or houses being at risk and we're scrambling trying to work out how we're going to do things," she said.
"To have everything ready to work out where people will sit, what roles they will take, who we need to communicate with and making sure everything is working and ready to go before an actual incident is really worthwhile."
Inspector Waters put about 75 firefighters from the Rural Fire Service and Fire and Rescue NSW through their paces on the weekend, in the first district exercise in the facility.
Firefighters conducted four training scenarios on Sunday, including recovering a vehicle during a grassfire, a skill that is increasingly vital in the wet weather.
They also responded to an aviation incident, a car crash involving multiple vehicles and injured motorists and a structural fire.
Inspector Waters said it was a fun experience running an incident from Tamworth for the first time - but an important one.
"It was excellent," she said.
"It was really good to be able to all work in our building and have the facilities there to be able to run it well.
"And obviously pick up a few things that we might need to improve on as well, with this new facility, with how we do things."
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark northerndailyleader.com.au
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Google News