The Board of Strathclyde Fire & Rescue has today given its approval for a new £30 million state-of-the-art centre to train Strathclyde's firefighters.

The training centre will be built on a new site large enough to accommodate a "hazard village", industrial zone and stretch of motorway where rescue techniqes can be taught as realistically as possible.

The centre will include an Academic Zone which will provide classroom based learning, with lecture and conference facilities and an incident command training suite.

Realistic training will take place in the Practical Zone. This zone will comprise:

• A "residential village zone" with a tenement building, high rise block, two semi-detached houses and a row of garage workshops. This area will be used primarily to teach firefighting techniques, but the village streets will also be the scene of staged road accidents where firefighters will learn how to remove crash victims safely from vehicles.
• An "industrial zone" with an electric substation, chemical plant with butane gas burn-off pipe and railway tankers.
• A "transport zone" comprising a stretch of motorway with on and off ramps and also a railway level crossing and tunnel.

The training centre will replace the current centre at Cowcaddens in Glasgow city centre which no longer meets modern requirements. The Fire (Scotland) Act 2005, which gave fire and rescue services a much wider role, underlined the need for Strathclyde to have a new training centre.

The Board's convener, Councillor Brian Wallace, said: "The Board is committed to giving the people of Strathclyde the best fire and rescue service possible. The new training centre that we have approved today will ensure that our training meets 21st Century standards."

Strathclyde Fire & Rescue's Chief Officer, Brian Sweeney, welcomed the Board's backing for the training centre, said: "I am delighted that the Board has agreed to make this major investment in the future of our service and the safety of the communities we serve.

"The new training centre will be the best available to any fire and rescue service in the United Kingdom. The sheer range of major incidents - from house fires to rail crashes - that will be 'staged' at the centre will help ensure that the training needs of our firefighters are fully met and their safety and welfare is enhanced."

Two potential sites for the centre have been identified: at Clydesmill in Cambuslang, South Lanarkshire, and at Greenlaw, Patterton, in East Renfrewshire. Once the centre is up and running it is proposed that a water rescue and technical rescue zones (for urban search and rescue in collapsed buildings and line rescues from high structures) will also be established.