A new £4.4 million state-of-the-art training facility for Royal Navy firefighters has been opened at RNAS Culdrose.
As well as being home to the Royal Navy’s maritime Merlin helicopters and one of the Europe’s largest air bases for rotary wing aircraft, the Cornish air base is also a major training site for the Fleet Air Arm.
As per a recent RN press statement, the new £4.4-million Fire Rescue Training Centre just established on the base was officially handed over to the Royal Naval School of Flight Deck Operations at the end of last week.
The two-level facility is built from steel and features stairwells, rooms and corridors which can simulate blazes on ships and inside buildings as required.
It’s fitted with no fewer than six gas burners which raise temperatures inside the training facility to around 1,000C. Extra hazards such as smoke, low- and no-light conditions, and fire reignitions can all be simulated at the touch of a button by observing instructors.
The statement said the new trainer will be used alongside existing rigs which simulate aircraft fires to train flight deck aircraft handlers, who specialise in firefighting and rescue.
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.”
- Find out more about our upcoming Naval Damage Control 2025 conference at the end of September
- You can read more details on the Royal Navy website