South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue’s state-of-the-art Realistic Fire Training Building (RFTB) is now fully operational

The £2.1million training facility, at SYFR’s training & development centre in Sheffield, is equipped with some of the most advanced fire simulation technology in the UK. Conditions that fire crews encounter at real life incidents are recreated inside the RFTB for realistic training exercises.

SYFR’s Watch Manager Steve Desmond said: “The beauty of the RFTB is that it provides a whole range of training opportunities for our crews, whether they are new recruits or vastly experienced firefighters. “Nationally and even internationally it is one of the most advanced buildings around in terms of firefighter training. Its technology means we can offer incredibly realistic training for our firefighters – including breathing apparatus, search and rescue, working at height and confined space training.”

The building comprises three storeys plus a basement and features a large internal compartmented search area. Some of its features include:

•    A carbonaceous flashover simulation room, built in to the design allowing fire behaviour training to be conducted on site.

•    An artificial smoke generator which services the building, with the entire fire and smoke simulation system wirelessly controlled via mobile hand-held devices.

•    A simulated sewer system running from outside the building to the ground floor area for confined space training, along with a highly efficient smoke extraction and filtration system ensuring that emissions from the building do not adversely affect the environment.

•    A large steel tower rig attached to the building externally to provide a working at height training facility, featuring trap-doors and gate systems to provide more realistic training opportunities than a standard drill tower.

•    An RTC training area allowing up to three separate training courses to be run simultaneously within the facility.

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