Chemnitz integrated regional control centre goes into operation
Yesterday, Wednesday, the Chemnitz Integrated Regional Control Centre successfully completed several hours of commissioning by switching over the emergency number 112 and various fire alarm systems. The first emergency call via 112 was received by the control centre at 04:29.
The new control centre replaces the emergency call centre of the Chemnitz professional fire brigade, which previously received incoming emergency calls for the entire city area and the former district of Stollberg.
The control centre currently covers an area of 488 km² with around 320,000 inhabitants. In further steps, the existing control centres in Grimma, Annaberg, Freiberg and the Aue-Schwarzenberg area (previously the Zwickau control centre) are to be integrated into the new Chemnitz control centre by mid-2018. Once the integration is complete, it will be responsible for a control centre area of 4,162 km² and almost one million inhabitants. A total of 70 dispatchers will then be on duty around the clock at 18 special workstations, working in shifts to coordinate emergency operations by the fire and rescue services as well as ambulance services.
The new control centre had become necessary because fire brigades, rescue services and disaster control units in Saxony will use a standardised digital radio network in future.
Among other things, this network supports location recognition for emergency calls via the telephone number 112.
The integrated regional control centre is based on an agreement between the city of Chemnitz, the Erzgebirgskreis district, the Mittelsachsen district and the Chemnitz-Erzgebirge rescue association from 2010. The foundation stone for the new building was laid on 12 September 2012.
The total costs of 17.8 million euros, around one third of which consist of land, planning and construction costs and around two thirds of which are costs for the technical equipment such as digital radio, telephony, operations control system, emergency power supply and dispatcher workstations, will be borne by the two districts involved in the construction of the integrated regional control centre, the city of Chemnitz, the Chemnitz-Erzgebirge Rescue Association, the Free State of Saxony and the health insurance companies.
The commissioning of the new control centre will not result in any significant changes for residents in the catchment area. The fire and rescue services can be reached as usual by dialling 112. Ambulance services can also be requested as before by dialling (0371) 19 222.
People with physical disabilities can now also make an emergency call by fax directly to 112; previously, a separate number was required for this. The necessary form (multilingual) and additional information can be found at www.feuerwehr-chemnitz.org and www.chemnitzer-feuerwehr.de.
You can also find other useful telephone numbers in the event of an emergency here: Emergency services.