AN INVESTIGATION has taken place after North Yorkshire fire crews were sent to the wrong address by a control room based almost 400 miles away.

Crews from Harrogate were initially sent more than two miles away from where they should have been by call operators in Cornwall.

North Yorkshire and Cornwall fire services share control room operations during busy periods, as part of a £3.6 million scheme.

North Yorkshire fire service said crews attending the blaze involving a car at a garage at Killinghall Business Park, near Harrogate, were delayed around 13 minutes as a result of the mix-up. However, the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) said fire engines were 17 minutes late.

Simon Wall, chairman of North Yorkshire FBU, says the call operator was told that the fire was at Killinghall Business Park, but crews were still sent to the wrong address.

He said: "The caller told the operator that the fire was at Killinghall Business Park, which is where it was.

"That was written on the information sheet by the control operator in Cornwall."

He added: "If it was a house fire or a crash it could have been extremely serious."

Following an investigation, North Yorkshire fire service says Cornwall Critical Control, in Tolvaddon, received an emergency call at 11.29am on April 12 from a caller about a car fire in a garage.

It claims that the control operator was unable to get an accurate initial location, and while the operator was seeking additional information the call, made from a mobile phone, "dropped out for an unknown reason", a spokesperson for the North Yorkshire service said.

The operator sent fire engines to the address and contacted North Yorkshire control to confirm that the incident location was generated from "incomplete information", the spokesperson added.

Area manager Jon Foster, from the fire service, said: "Due to the difficulties experienced whilst taking the call, fire engines were initially sent to the wrong address.

"This type of event will happen occasionally and is not related to where the call was taken. Fire crews were quickly dispatched to the right address once this had been clarified and dealt with the incident using a hose reel jet to extinguish the fire."

Cornwall’s control room has been able to receive calls and dispatch resources on behalf North Yorkshire and vice versa since the summer of last year.

North Yorkshire fire service claims this collaborative approach has been working well with more than 30 incidents each month being successfully handled via these arrangements.

As previously reported by The Press, the new partnership between North Yorkshire and Cornwall fire services is expected to save the fire service £5.76 million over the next five years, less than the £6.34 million envisaged in September 2013.