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A WORLD-CLASS training facility for urban search and rescue (USAR) has been unveiled at the UK’s Fire Service College in Moreton in Marsh, Gloucestershire.
Set up under the Govern-ment’s New Dimension programme, the facility cost £6m and is the largest indoor facility of its type. It will provide year-round, all-weather training for firefighters for all levels of response, from front-line response, to senior command multi-agency operations.
It houses three large indoor training rigs:
• a ‘T’ rig with three enclosed tunnels, connec-ted in a ‘T’-shape, for search and rescue training in confined spaces
• a breaking and breaching rig, which facilitates practice with cutting techniques and equipment – for example, cutting through concrete with drills, breakers, saws and cutters
• a multi-floor rig, which represents a multi-level collapsed building, enabling training in search and rescue of casualties in voids under, or between, floors
In addition, there are two outdoor rigs: the first allows firefighters to practice internal and external shoring methods; the second, which simulates the scene of the bombed Murrah Federal building in Oklahoma, USA, is for training with fire and rescue dogs and search cameras.
Opening the facility, Civil Resilience Minister, Paul Woolas MP, said: ‘It is vital that firefighters have the facilities to train in new USAR techniques using the state-of-the-art equipment, and that they are able to practise those skills and share their knowledge with colleagues’
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