- Fire Service College
The Fire Service College is responsible for providing leadership, management and advanced operational training courses for senior fire officers from the UK and foreign fire authorities. It is located at
Moreton-in-Marsh inGloucestershire , England. It is anExecutive Agency and comes under the authority of theDepartment for Communities and Local Government .The college does not provide initial training for recruit firefighters; this training is provided by fire authorities at local or regional training establishments. While Scotland has its own Fire Service College at Gullane [ [http://www.scottish-fireservicescollege.org Scottish Fire Service College] ] near
Edinburgh , many Scottish fire officers go to Moreton on the more specialist and senior ranking courses.History
Moreton was, as the home station of 21 Operational Training Unit,
Bomber Command responsible for the training of aircrew to fly Wellington bombers. [http://www.fireservicecollege.ac.uk] , Fire Service College Official website. Accessed2 May 2007 .] The Station also flew operations, and sent aircraft on the large bomber raids on the German cities ofCologne ,Dresden andHamburg . The airbase remained operational until the late 1950s. The government then used the base to teach fire fighting to military personnel undergoing theirNational Service .The Home Office opened the College on the 500 acre (2 km²) site in 1968. [http://www.fireservicecollege.ac.uk] , Fire Service College Official website. Accessed
2 May 2007 .] The first students while having most of the facilities seen today had no proper accommodation and were bunked in large Nissen huts (in the area that is now the cricket and football pitches), which originally housed the RAF personnel when it was an operational airbase. The Staff College at Dorking was closed in 1981 and all training was transferred to Moreton.Today. it has a wide range of facilities for theoretical education and practical training in fire fighting, fire safety and accident and emergency work.
Education
Educationally, the college boasts state of the art lecture facilities and specialised areas such as IT suites, a chemistry laboratory and hydraulics laboratory. The tutors are drawn from both the academic world and from officers serving in fire and rescue services around the country. Courses available range from junior officer development to senior officer management courses right up to Chief Officer level. To support the educational side, there as a large administration complex and a library of fire related literature. Students come mainly from the UK but several countries such as
Trinidad and Tobago ,Hong Kong ,Cyprus ,Saudi Arabia ,UAE andGibraltar send students on a regular basis. Prior to the current troubles in various parts of the world, students fromIraq andNigeria were a common sight at the college.Operational training
To support the operational training the college has a fully equipped appliance room with some 25 appliances from different manufacturers including pumps, aerial appliances, rescue tenders, USAR vehicles and hazmats appliances. There is also a large workshop to maintain the appliances and all the other operational equipment used.
The M96 motorway is a short stretch of road at the college which imitates in detail a typical UK motorway; it is used to teach firefighters in training how to deal with
road traffic accident s. It consists of one of the former runways of the airfield. The numbering of the motorway is not consistent with theGreat Britain road numbering scheme ; however its number is largely irrelevant, as it is not open to the public.ocial
The social and domestic facilities include
*Standard and deluxe accommodation for 600 students
*Television rooms and lounge areas
*A chapel
*The ’Four Shires’ Restaurant and bar complex
*Sports complex with a 25 x 9m swimming pool, sauna, 4 squash courts a sports hall and fitness suite
*Several football and cricket pitches
*2 Tennis CourtsOther uses
The college is also home to the
Institution of Fire Engineers (IFE) [ [http://www.ife.org.uk Institution of Fire Engineers official website] ]The BBC used the location to film the docudrama "
The Day Britain Stopped " about a series of catastrophic transport accidents. For the purposes of the program, the motorway was temporarily rebranded "M91".The college has been on occasions shut over weekends and used by the military and police for training, as the live fire buildings and complexes allow training in certain operational areas that cannot easily be carried out or reconstructed elsewhere.
References
ee also
*
New Dimension programme
*UK Government Decontamination Service External links
* [http://www.fireservicecollege.ac.uk/ Fire Service College: Official site]
* [http://www.scottish-fireservicescollege.org Scottish Fire Service College: Official site]
* [http://www.ife.org.uk/ Institution of Fire Engineers]
* [http://www.iem.org/news.php Institute of Emergency Management]
* [http://www.the-eps.org/ Emergency Planning Society]
* [http://www.epcollege.gov.uk/ Emergency Planning College]
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