The Fire Service College's award success for hazardous materials course

Juliet Basford | 26 October 2009

The Fire Service College has won a prestigious training award and been nominated for two national awards for one of its courses, which is designed to help fire officers to deal with emergencies involving hazardous substances.

The Fire Service College has been named winner of the National Training Award (NTA) in the South West region, for the Design and development of courses, for its specialist Hazardous materials and environmental protection (HMEP) course.

The College also been nominated for a national NTA award and has won through to the national final of the Personnel Today awards, for the same course.  This success is hot on the heels of the Fire Service College's triumph at last year's National Training Awards, when it was named the UK's Best Provider of Training and Education for 2008.

In 2007, the Fire Service College decided to redesign its Hazardous materials and environmental protection (HMEP) course, for UK Fire services.   Each year the UK's fire services deal with up to 250 emergency incidents involving fuel spillages, chemical leaks and asbestos, which require advice from specialist fire officers, or hazardous materials (HAZMAT) officers. The substances involved in these incidents could potentially pose a threat to public or fire-fighter safety, if not dealt with correctly.

The new HMEP course trains officers to identify chemicals and other hazardous materials, evaluate the decontamination methods available and advise incident commanders. The new HMEP course is the first of its kind to use blended learning, where delegates access 60 hours of pre-course e-learning material before the residential course, which uses the College's unique incident ground facility, in Moreton in Marsh, Gloucestershire.

The HMEP course designers more than doubled the time that trainees spent in interactive practical exercises, such as practical chemistry exercises and live explosions, replicated by explosives experts, burning chemical plant rigs, to simulate extreme situations; whilst also reducing the length of the residential course from 5 to 3.5 weeks.

This was possible by introducing pre-course e-learning, supported by online tutors and delivered on FireLearn; the College's online learning management system.

Over 100 fire officers have successfully completed the course and more than 90% rated it as good or excellent. Trainees are also surveyed within six months of completing their training, with over 62% having already used their new skills and knowledge. Skills are maintained through a HAZMATS online forum and revalidated through a new refresher course.

The course has been ratified by the Chief Fire Officers Association and the accreditation body, University of Central Lancaster.

The cost of the training to individual fire services is typically recovered after just one incident. Before training, it is estimated the average cost of an incident was £18,000, while after training it was £4,000, representing a saving of £14,000.

John Mann, head of training delivery, West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, says: "Our delegates are returning to work immediately able to apply their learnt skills and knowledge to the benefit of the general public, themselves and other fire fighters.  The Fire Service College is training HAZMAT officers to a very high level, developing a very important resilience capability."

John Cooper, the HMEP course director at the Fire Service College said: "I am delighted that the fire and rescue services, who we have worked with to ensure that the course meets their requirements for specialist HAZMAT officers, are so pleased with the quality of what we are providing. This prestigious award is testimony to the hard work and broad minded approach taken by everyone involved to design and deliver such a first class course."

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Note to Editors:

1.         For details of the National Training Award, follow the weblink, below: http://www.nationaltrainingawards.com/view_pressrelease.cfm?prID=96

2.         For more information, contact:

Neil Thompson, Communications Officer, Fire Service College

Email: nthompson@fireservicecollege.ac.uk

FSC website: www.fireservicecollege.ac.uk