NIFRS Learning & Development Centre at Cookstown

A long-term investment in the training of NIFRS and partner emergency services which will improve public safety.

Project Description

The Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS) Learning & Development Centre (LDC) at Cookstown is a Northern Ireland Executive Flagship project which will invest £50m in training infrastructure for NIFRS. The NIFRS Learning & Development Centre will be a training Centre of Excellence, collaborating with partner organisations to improve public safety. The Centre will be an enabler for integrated emergency service training, joint response and interoperability. It will equip NIFRS, its partner agencies and wider public services with the skills, resilience and abilities to support and keep safe the communities they serve.

The development includes a Learning and Development training centre with 9 classrooms, lecture hall and office accommodation, multi-purpose training warehouse, fire call out village for multiple training scenarios, flood water training facility, hazardous material training props and road traffic collision training facilities.

NIFRS LDC Cookstown Overview:

This significant investment will allow our emergency services to train in realistic scenarios which will recreate the hazards that they face in operational call outs, but crucially within a safe, controlled and repeatable training environment. The investment will lead to improved public safety, improved service delivery, and improved staff health and safety.

NIFRS Training Warehouse

Project Status

The project is being delivered in two phases:

Phase1, a Tactical Firefighting Facility and Training Support Building, was completed in 2019
Phase 2 is the substantive phase and is currently in construction. The facility will open in mid-2024.