West Midlands Fire Service (WMFS) – the second largest fire and rescue service in England – will begin the implementation of IRIS Core – Unblur ́s Incident Command System, with a six-month proof of concept. The commercial agreement with WMFS aims to evolve the way firefighters work, utilising the latest digital solution for incident response.

The proof of concept will run in the Coventry & Solihull Command area, which includes five stations and nine fire engines and 4×4 Brigade Response Vehicles. After successfully integrating and deploying the solution within the proof of concept, it is hoped, IRIS Core will be rolled out service wide to WMFS’s 38 fire stations and 1,164 firefighters.

As part of delivery, IRIS Core will integrate with WMFS IT systems including its command and control, mobilisation system, Site Specific Risk Information (SSRI) and water hydrants data.

WMFS purchased the IRIS Core solution through the G cloud framework for fast and easy procurement. Using the G-cloud framework speeds up the digitalisation process and empowers WMFS to scale quickly from the small group of initial users to the whole organisation. The partnership between WMFS and Unblur supports recommendations made in His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services State of Fire and Rescue reports and will become a significant step to support coordination, situation awareness and optimise decision making during incidents.

West Midlands Fire Service’s Digital, Data and Innovation Strategy outlines its commitment to delivering intelligent services to its communities through its digitally empowered workforce.

Paul Dunnell of West Midlands Fire Service said:
“We are excited to announce this fantastic collaboration with Unblur. It will involve a six-month proof of concept period introducing a new approach to incident management, command and control and command support. We also anticipate significant improvements to firefighter safety and post-incident learning. Ultimately, this is about supporting our assertive, effective and safe response to incidents for the benefit of our communities, making the West Midlands safer, stronger and healthier.

Alfonso Zamarro, CEO and Co-founder of Unblur said:
“This project is an exciting opportunity for all of us to show how an Agile digital strategy such as West Midlands Fire Services, and a framework such as G-Cloud foster innovation for fire services. Within months we can put our Incident Command technology in the hands of a small group of firefighters and be operational with IRIS. The learnings from this group will help to roll out the implementation in the most simple and effective way for the whole service. Step by step and iterating in every stage, making sure what we do is truly helping firefighters operate even more effectively and safely in their day-to-day work.”

The project will be complemented by deploying new Zebra Technologies devices to support the IRIS Tactics app. Incident commanders will use devices to run IRIS Tactics giving risk mapping, streaming body cameras and GPS tracking.

Unblur and WMFS work together to achieve effective usage of data and make the digital transformation in fireground smooth and safe.