Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) is in the midst of rolling out a Pager Pilot Program, with the Narrabri station being among the first to trial the new technology.

Across the state, only seven stations have been granted access to the new pagers so far.

The crews attached to these stations, including Narrabri, are testing the Birdy 4G Two Way Pager system for user-friendliness before the finalised technology is distributed to every on-call FRNSW firefighter in the state.

The aim of this pilot stage is to assess the usability of the new pager, with firies to offer feedback on their experience before the full roll out over the next few months.

The Birdy Pager is a major step up for FRNSW, with the updated model featuring both 4G capabilities and radio transmitters.

Narrabri station commander, Shane Bradford AFSM, said this dual functionality is a great improvement to the pager.

“We have a paging transmitter at the station, which calls our members out to jobs, but the new pager also features a 4G backup option – this means, if our transmitter goes down, we will still receive the emergency calls through Telstra,” he said.

“And in the same sense, if Telstra goes down then we still have the radio transmitters to fall back on.

“The two methods give Fire and Rescue that extra sense of security to ensure the messages are getting through for all emergency responses.”

Captain Bradford said another perk of the new pagers is the two-way communication feature.

“So not only are we getting the information about jobs that need our attention, but we can send our response details back,” he explained.

“That way, the FRNSW triple zero operators in Sydney and Newcastle know that we’ve acknowledged the fire call and they’re aware who is going and how many staff will be attending the incident.

“This also means that, should there be an issue with the number of staff not being available for a particular type of incident, operators can respond a second station automatically to back up already attending crews.”

Captain Bradford explained that this program has been in the works for some time now, with him being hand-selected by the project team to help pre-COVID to evaluate the pagers.

“I’ve been part of this initiative from around February 2020, originally getting involved because of my background in electronics and telecommunications,” he said.

“Integration with the latest technology has been important throughout the pilot program, with a lot of work done behind the scenes over a number of years to deliver the Birdy Pager technology and integration into new and existing dispatch systems according to the FRNSW requirements.

“As part of this, FRNSW Project Team has requested tweaks, such as updating the 3G capabilities to 4G and the addition of micro USB charging ports to allow the device to be charged in-vehicle. So, it was exciting to see the pager rolled out to the whole Narrabri team about a month or so ago.”

Captain Bradford said in-station trials have gone well in Narrabri, with the local firies able to assess new features.

“The hands-on trials have given the crew a feel for the capabilities for what the new pagers are,” he said.

“There’s new colours available on the device screens, different fire tone alerts, and much more.

“We’re now in the final stages of the trial, fine-tuning every little aspect to ensure everything’s good to go when they rollout across the state.”

Captain Bradford said that, since the devices have extra capabilities, they are slightly larger in size, but the team have adapted well.

“After the first week or so, the crew became used to them,” he said.

“Now the Birdy Pager is simply attached to every firefighter – like your right arm, it’s a part of us.”

Captain Bradford met over video conference with union officials and representatives of FRNSW on Tuesday, September 7, to share their review feedback and suggestions for improvements and/or changes if necessary, before FRNSW implement the final rollout statewide.

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