The duties of firefighters have changed greatly over recent years. The number and types of emergency incidents have increased and a firefighter must be able to cope with a diverse range of duties, including road traffic accidents and incidents involving hazardous loads. The FRS Training and Development Centre at Devizes aims to provide firefighters with the skills needed to tackle the various dangers they come across during their careers.

The Training and Development Centre was built in 1984 and is situated on the Hopton Industrial Estate, to the West of the main A361 Devizes to Swindon road, approximately one mile North-East of Devizes and covers an area of 5,250 square metres (1/2 hectare).

The Training and Development Centre enables the FRS to train firefighters under realistic conditions which they encounter in actual fire situations, and to conduct fire safety courses for industry both nationally and within the County.

There are three separate buildings on the site, a fire training building, lectrue complex (including appliance bays) and a fire fuel store.

Fire Training Building

The Fire Training Building is of reinforced concrete construction and the fire rooms are lined with refectory tiles to allow high temperature fires, in excess of 800C, to be fought without risk to the building structure. The three storey fire training building incorporates a five storey drill tower and the construction is such that the first three floors of the tower form an integral part of the training complex. All the metal framed windows to the building are of different sizes and opening type, with sheet steel being used instead of glass.

Both fire rooms at ground level can be entered externally or internally via steel fire doors and both rooms are sprinklered. Special attention has been given to drainage from these rooms, which incorporates a substantial fall to a large drainage gulley.

The orientation section contains a series of crawlways that test a firefighters ability to operate in confined spaces. On the first floor of the building is the searhc and rescue area. Nine rooms have been created by the use of semi-permanent partitions, with a total of seventeen doors giving access to te rooms. At second floor level the attic area can be entered internally via a staircase, loft hatch or vertical laddder.

The movement of personnel throughout the building can be monitored from the Control Room. Thirty-two radar detector heads have been installed, each with a range of 3 meters. Anyone coming within range of the heads will be indicated on the consol in the Control Room. The building also houses seven microphones to monitor conversations between personnel and twelve temperature and two humidity sensors wired back to the Control Room to monitor conditions.