CALL operators at Surrey Fire and Rescue Service were forced to use pen and paper to take details of emergencies and mobilise fire engines last week after vital computer systems crashed.

The Surrey County Council IT system crashed at 5.39pm on Monday, July 17, and remained inactive for nearly 24 hours, affecting a number of council-run services including Surrey Fire Emergency Control.

Surrey’s Automatic Vehicle Location System also crashed which, according to the Fire Brigade Union, caused further delays as call operators scrambled to locate the nearest fire engine to an incident.

Lee Belsten, secretary of the FBU in Surrey, said: “When systems are down, control operators have to resort to using pen and paper to log 999 calls, then mobilise each fire appliance using an antiquated and slower method to mobilise them.

“It also means fire crews who respond to the incident are left without the information and detail they would normally expect to have. This is dangerous for the firefighters as well as for the public.”

A Surrey County Council spokesman said: “We suffered some unfortunate IT issues late on Monday that disrupted some county council including fire and rescue systems, our IT teams worked incredibly hard through the night to fix the issue while staff used well-rehearsed and planned processes to ensure that every 999 call was answered and responded to appropriately.”

The incident comes just weeks after FBU members passed a vote of no confidence in Surrey County Council’s fire authority, saying that a proposed £10 million budget cut will put the public and firefighters at risk.

In 2010, Surrey Fire and Rescue Service employed 378 firefighters. This number has since fallen to 252 and the FBU says by 2022 there will be just 117 whole-time firefighters responding to emergencies across the county.

Since 2010, Surrey Emergency Control has also seen a 35 per cent cut in staff, leaving just three control operators on duty. The union says this means staff are overstretched, stressed and at times unable to handle 999 calls.

Earlier this month, during fires at Weybridge Community Hospital and Ockham Farm, calls had to be redirected to the Merseyside Control Room.

Mr Belsten added: “With every passing day Surrey County Council show they are not capable of governing a fire and rescue service that is fit for purpose in the 21st century.”