Fire Service College

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The Fire Service College is responsible for providing leadership, management and advanced operational training courses for senior fire officers from the UK and foreign fire authorities. It is located at Moreton-in-Marsh in Gloucestershire, England. It is an executive agency and comes under the authority of the Department for Communities and Local Government.

The college does not provide initial training for recruit firefighters which is provided by fire authorities at local or regional training establishments.

The college has been at its present 500 acre (2 km²) site since 1968. It has a wide range of facilities for theoretical education and practical training in fire fighting, fire safety and accident and emergency work. It can stage simulated building fires and road, rail, aircraft and shipping accidents as well as chemical plant, oil storage, industrial and offshore emergencies. There is a short stretch of road mocked up as a motorway called the M96.

The College has residential facilities for six hundred students. It mainly serves the British public sector, but courses can also be booked by commercial and international clients.

[edit] M96 motorway

The M96 motorway is a short stretch of road in Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire, comprising part of the UK Fire Service College. The stretch of road imitates a typical UK motorway in detail; it is used to teach firefighters in training how to deal with road traffic accidents. It consists of the former runways of the World War II airfield RAF Moreton-in-Marsh.

The numbering of the motorway is not consistent with the Great Britain road numbering scheme; however its number is largely irrelevant, as it is not open to the public.

The BBC used the location to film the docudrama The Day Britain Stopped about a series of catastrophic transport accidents. For the purposes of the program, the motorway was temporarily rebranded "M91".

[edit] Leisure club

The College also has a sports complex which is open for members of the public who can join as members. The Leisure club has a 25x9m swimming pool, four squash courts, four badminton courts, two tennis courts, two football pitches and a gymnasium.