Fujitsu Australia has announced a five-year engagement with the New South Wales Rural Fire Service (NSW RFS) that will see Fujitsu digitise the NSW RFS’s mission critical systems to help improve fire emergency outcomes in the state.
The $60 million program will see Fujitsu develop, install and maintain incident response Mobile Data Terminals across more than 5,000 RFS vehicles. Using a specialised Fujitsu program and AWS-hosted software from Adashi Systems, the Mobile Data Terminals will be a resilient platform that will provide support to fire fighters fighting the fire front. They will have access to mission critical information such as satellite and topography imagery and weather updates. The Mobile Data Terminals will also connect fire fighters to the NSW RFS Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system, which is managed by Fujitsu.
The roll out of Mobile Data Terminals in all NSW RFS fire fighting vehicles advances fire emergency outcomes by improving the delivery of briefings and incident information and intelligence to field commanders.
This announcement advances a number of the 76 recommendations set out by the independent NSW Bushfire inquiry – which was established in response to the 2019-20 black summer bushfires – and is part of a $192 million NSW grant to improve and provide new emergency infrastructure for fire fighters.
Dave Lennon, Head of Industry – Public Sector at Fujitsu Australia, said: “Fujitsu is pleased to be helping the NSW Rural Fire Service improve frontline situational awareness for fire fighters, and protect our rural communities, people, property, and the environment. We are so proud that our dedicated emergency services practice and experienced teams are able to deliver transformational innovation that helps our heroic fire fighters in life threatening situations.”
Rob Rogers, NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner said the 2019/20 bush fire season was the toughest and most devastating fire season ever experienced in NSW.
“Following the NSW Bushfire Inquiry, we’ve been working with the NSW Government and our partners to advance the recommendations set out in the report and ultimately improve how we plan, prepare and respond to bush fires,” he said.
“Our partnership with Fujitsu is one example of how we’re achieving this, and we believe digitising our operations will help us be more agile and enhance our firefighting capability.”
Fujitsu has begun building the integration systems, using cloud-based infrastructure to run the Adashi software platform and manage critical incidents safely and efficiently. Installation of the Mobile Data Terminals into NSW RFS vehicles will commence at the end of 2022.
This engagement is an extension to Fujitsu’s existing relationship with NSW RFS. Fujitsu currently manages the NSW RFS’s Computer Aided Dispatch system, which it implemented in 2020. The CAD system manages the assignment and deployment of resources to emergency and non-emergency incidents.
