One of the biggest challenges faced by fire departments is the lack of safe and realistic live-fire training.

Environmental and safety concerns have made burns in acquired structures complicated, and it is generally difficult and costly to transport a department’s personnel and active response resources out of its area to a training center often enough to provide sufficient live-fire experience.

Although many departments have chosen to build their own burn rooms, the sense of realism is lacking.

In an effort to meet the needs of fire departments and industrial fire brigades, Permian Basin Regional Training Center acquired a state-of-the-art mobile modular fire trainer manufactured by Kidde Fire Trainers. Kidde’s fire trainers are in more than 200 training centers across the world, and this is one of more than 800 computer controlled fire props delivered since 1983.

Kidde is also the primary vendor for the fire trainers used at the new PBRTC facility.

The Trainer:

The degree of difficulty associated with each evolution is controlled through a computerized system, and the trainer can provide scenarios including “smoke showing”, victim rescue, incipient fire, rollover and dozens of other combinations.

The system can be adjusted for difficulty and utilizes both automatic and manual controls. The fire will automatically respond to agent application in accordance with the programmed difficulty, providing for consistent training experiences.

At the push of a button, the PBRTC instructor can immediately shut down the fire and clear the air. This system virtually eliminates the risk associated with traditional live fire training, which involves creating fires in uncontrolled environments.

Use of this trainer provides an excellent opportunity to test deployment strategies and standard operating procedures, in addition to training for their use. Scenarios can be immediately duplicated, reducing the down time associated with typical live-fire training.

To reserve the mobile structural fire simulator, call 505-885-2366