A new £4.4-million Fire Rescue Training Centre built at Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose in Cornwall has been officially handed over by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation and VIVO Defence Services.
Built of steel on two levels, with rooms, corridors and stairwells, the facility can be used to simulate a burning building or ship.
It will be used by the Royal Naval School of Flight Deck Operations, alongside existing training rigs which simulate aircraft fires, to train aircraft handlers, who specialise in firefighting and rescue.
The new centre has six gas burners which can reach temperatures of up to 1,000 degrees, as well as ‘cribs’ to contain burning wooden pallets.
Smoke can be added, the lights cut to plunge the rooms into darkness, and fires reignited including overhead ‘flash-ups’ which spread flames across the ceiling, all at the touch of a button by a watchful instructor armed with a remote control.
Captain James Hall, the air station’s commanding officer, said: “This is state-of-the-art equipment that provides us with a much needed and credible training facility.
“This will allow our trainees to understand and experience, in as realistic an environment as possible while still remaining safe, the difficulties of firefighting both in domestic and maritime environments.
“It is a fantastic addition to the facilities here at Culdrose and it will give our personnel the training and skills they will potentially need to face these dangers for real.”
The centre was designed to make the experience as realistic as possible for those training and there are emergency buttons which immediately shut off the fires and ventilate the building, as well as a stop-system which is triggered automatically by sensors measuring temperature and gas levels, meaning exercises can be caried out in a controlled and safe way.
The new Fire Rescue Training Centre is a Royal Navy Infrastructure project delivered by Defence Infrastructure Organisation and contractor VIVO Defence Services and replaces a previous training centre which had reached the end of its service life
Amanda Hill, VIVO Defence Services Regional Director of Operations for the Built Estate in the Southwest region, said: “I am really proud of our local project team and our supply partners for producing this state-of-the-art fire training centre for RNAS Culdrose.
“We are one of the largest providers of estate services to the Ministry of Defence and its partners, and delivering this certainly highlights the range of different projects VIVO gets involved in to help enable the UK’s defence capability.”
VIVO Defence Services provides hard Facilities Management and Project Management Services across the Ministry of Defence’s Built Estate in the southeast and southwest regions on behalf of the Defence Infrastructure Organisation.
