£40m firefighter training site opens in city

The 12-acre Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service centre has opened in Aintree

A £40m fire and rescue training centre designed to help teach firefighters how to respond to "every conceivable risk" has opened in a city.

The Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service centre in Aintree, Liverpool, will train crews in different scenarios, from motorways accidents to high-rise building fires and railway fires.

Chief Fire Officer Phil Garrigan said the new centre, which took 18 months to construct, would help firefighters respond quicker.

He said the 12-acre site was "incomparable with the training facilities we've have previously".

It took 18 months to construct the training centre

A replica motorway scene has been recreated for firefighters to practise

Mr Garrigan told BBC Radio Merseyside: "Firefighters will train against all foreseeable risk so everything that they could possibly come across over the course of their career is built into this training facility.

"It means firefighters will be trained to be able to respond quicker, meaning the Merseyside public is safer".

Search and rescue training also takes place at the site

Mr Garrigan said the facility would help firefighters "to be safe and to protect the communities that they live and work in really effectively".