The fire house for training firefighters

Erected for the Departmental Council and the firefighters of Ille-et-Vilaine, the building was designed and built by Bouygues Bâtiment Grand Ouest. The technical training facility has a new innovative tool, the goal of this unusual construction being to give firefighters a place to train in conditions as close as possible to the real thing! The conditions of a residential building are reproduced in the various rooms of the fire house. That means the firefighters can train in different scenarios, from basic first-aid to administering medical treatment. Trainers can monitor the exercises from behind one-way glass, without disturbing the operation being played out. Computerized dummies let the firefighters approach the victim in near-real conditions. The fire house has 200 m² of floor space on four storeys, as well as a basement and a loft. With 13 fire points fed by the municipal gas supply, the building can simulate a range of scenarios: a fire in a vehicle, a basement, a kitchen, a stairwell, a bin storage area, a bedroom, a living room, and so on. The training conditions are safe thanks to a system that lets the supervisor control the intensity of the flames, the calorific potential, and the density of the smoke. The operations management and command area lets the officers receive training in command and coordination techniques for firefighting operations. In 2017, the departmental training school will get a virtual-reality operations simulator. Trainees will use this kind of immersive video game to lead a rescue operation involving several fire engines, coordinate the actions of the people on the ground, and anticipate developments in the situation. Check out this video of the firefighters during a training session at the fire house.