Simulation modelling in support of emergency fire-fighting in Norfolk

In the fall of 2002 the Fire Brigade Union within the United Kingdom proposed a ballot on strike action in support of a wage demand. Consequently the Ministry of Defence agreed that in the event of strike action, emergency assistance to the local authorities would be provided by deploying military staff to man fire-fighting equipment and to provide command and control functions. The military Detachment Commander for the County of Norfolk region was faced with a number of issues regarding basing of assets and asset management. This paper describes how simple simulation modelling was used to provide insights into the type of issues that the military would face in undertaking this role. Two models were developed; one using SIMUL8 to investigate asset utilisation, and the other using VisualBasic to generate a master event list for use in mission planning and control centre training.