The facility, with three fully equipped industrial containers designed like a house with rooms, doors, windows and chimneys, will allow SEIS personnel to train in fire control maneuvers in different scenarios
This is the first training camp in a fire department in the Canary Islands.
The San Bartolomé de Tirajana City Council has provided its Fire and Rescue Service (SEIS) with its first live-fire training area. Mayor Marco Aurelio Pérez Sánchez presented it this Friday as “a strategic infrastructure to reinforce the ongoing training, operational readiness, and technical preparedness of firefighters in real emergency situations, and to provide the necessary safety to both the residents of the municipality and the firefighters themselves.”
With this new fire simulator, the Fire and Rescue Service (SEIS) will have its own safe and specialized space to simulate intervention scenarios under controlled conditions. Starting next Monday, with the first training exercises, the facility will allow them to practice maneuvers related to structural fires, fire control, smoke detection, ventilation, indoor progression, team coordination, and decision-making in complex environments.
The training area consists of three fully equipped and adapted industrial containers, installed in a U-shape on a concrete slab of approximately 432 m², which serves as a base for their correct placement, stability, and operation. Their single-story layout allows for the simulation of a house with different rooms, doors, windows, chimneys, partition walls, and distinct fire zones, recreating real-life operational scenarios involving indoor intervention.
This infrastructure will be especially useful for improving the response to fires in homes and enclosed spaces, reinforcing the safety of firefighters during interventions, practicing fire and smoke control techniques, training in operational ventilation, and standardizing work procedures.
Furthermore, it will also allow for periodic maneuvers without depending on external facilities, adapting the training of personnel to the operational reality of San Bartolomé de Tirajana, a municipality with high tourist, residential, commercial and service activity, where it is essential to have an emergency service that is prepared, updated and capable of responding to diverse scenarios.
Training of trainers
One of the most important aspects of the project is that it goes beyond simply creating a physical facility; it will also establish an internal structure for ongoing training within the Fire Service itself. In this regard, the project includes a specialized 70-hour course on using the facility and the training of 11 firefighter instructors who will become certified trainers. These instructors will then train the rest of the staff in using the training area and in operational techniques related to firefighting, fire control, smoke detection, ventilation, indoor progression, and safety during interventions. This will provide the Fire Service with its own qualified personnel to conduct continuous training, periodic refresher courses, and internal drills throughout the year, ensuring a constant improvement in the operational readiness of its staff.
Train, evaluate, improve
The new training area will also allow for the repetition of critical maneuvers, the evaluation of procedures, and the refinement of intervention techniques. The planning of observation and recording points will facilitate the creation of training audiovisual materials, subsequent analysis of the exercises, and the continuous improvement of intervention teams.
This capability transforms the installation into a high-value operational tool, as it will allow for the analysis of actions, the correction of errors, the strengthening of coordination, and the improvement of decision-making in risky situations.
The training facility has been located in the immediate vicinity of the Fire Station to facilitate its direct use by the service personnel during scheduled practices, training refreshers, internal maneuvers and continuing education.
The acquisition of this training field cost €144.985, including IGIC (Canary Islands General Indirect Tax), fully funded by the San Bartolomé de Tirajana City Council. In addition to the supply of the containers, the construction of the concrete slab, transport, installation, commissioning, certification, and user manuals, this investment also includes a 70-hour specialized training course for using the facility.
The Councillor for Security and Emergencies, José Carlos Álamo, praised “the enormous importance of this fire simulator for the present and future of our firefighters. It reflects the investment being made throughout this legislative term and is part of the training plan established to strive for excellence among the SEIS (Fire and Rescue Service) personnel, with the aim of being of service to our community and having a greater and better response capacity for residents and the thousands of people who come to enjoy our municipality. It places our firefighters at a benchmark level in the Canary Islands,” he stated.
For his part, Mayor Marco Aurelio Pérez emphasized that this is the first training field of this magnitude in the Canary Islands, both public and private, designed to provide the Maspalomas fire department with top-tier, realistic training using real fire and smoke. “With this infrastructure, the City Council is reinforcing its commitment to modernizing the Fire and Rescue Service, providing it with a stable tool for better training, safer intervention, and more effective protection of the public. The training field represents a direct investment in training, safety, and response capacity,” he said.
The fire simulator, designed by the fire chief's command with the support of a specialized team, is the first element of the SEIS training field in San Bartolomé de Tirajana, which will continue to be developed soon with the installation of a new high-rise building for training in firefighting and rescue operations on upper floors.
Marco Aurelio Pérez emphasized that the training field will be made available to the fire departments of other municipalities through the establishment of the corresponding agreements and conventions.
