The International Fire Training Centre was recently awarded some firefighter training work with the company that operates the deepest mine in the UK. It’s up to 1,400 metres in depth – that’s four Eiffel Towers stacked on top of one another!
IFTC’s Training Director, Dennis Perkins and Curriculum Manager, Daryl Bean, visited the site earlier this week to get a view of the particular risks and operating conditions that would affect a first respondent’s actions and priorities in dealing with an incident.
Heat (temperatures up to forty degrees), air supply and the sheer scale of the deep mine network were just some of the features that would influence the response and therefore our training programme. There’s a high tech, specialist lab down there as well – it benefits from there being almost no background radiation that far beneath the earth’s surface.
A really interesting challenge for when the crews come to IFTC’s fireground to practice their tactics, techniques and incident management processes. We’re looking forward to welcoming their delegates.