Design Team become a 'Firefighter for a Day'
23.10.09
Following on from our appointment to provide services design for the provision of new training facilities for Strathclyde Fire & Rescue, Hulley’s design team attended a ‘Fire Fighter for a Day’ event, organised by Strathclyde Fire and Rescue (SFR) in order to give the team a taste of some of the exercises undertaken by different disciplines of SFR.
A classroom presentation took place followed by instruction in how to set up and use breathing apparatus. After being fully suited in protective gear, the groups made their way to a live fire exercise where teams extinguished a domestic fire including a flash-over simulation using branch and compartment techniques. After the live fire exercise the groups were given a demonstration of combustibles and the confusingly named ‘Aquarium’ which showed the limits of flammability and the chemistry of combustion in an enclosed environment.
The groups were then taken to SFR's technical rescue facility in Hamilton to undertake in Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) and Road Traffic Collision (RTC) training consisting of a demonstration of the hi-tech equipment used to find casualties trapped in rubble and a live exercise in which each team had a break through reinforced concrete in order to evacuate a dummy casualty.
This was an important exercise for the design team which demonstrated how important the new Training Centre (currently at Stage D) and Practical Buildings are to SFR in providing future training to new recruits.
The new development at SFR, with an approximate value of £30m, will replace the current centre at Cowcaddens in Glasgow City Centre which no longer meets the standard of today’s extensive fire and rescue training requirements. The initial 3 phases of the project are programmed to reach completion in 2012.
