The new training school will comprise 22 blocks of low and medium-rise buildings, including administration offices, learning centres, dormitories and ancillary buildings. Indoor and outdoor physical training facilities and incident grounds will also be located on the 17ha site. Additionally, the training school will provide simulators covering seven types of potential large and complex emergency situations – incidents related to buildings, transportation, marine and water, gas, aircraft, hazardous material and structural collapse.
As well as providing building engineering services, Mott MacDonald will also assist in securing BEAM plus ‘Gold’ certification from the BEAM Society. To help achieve this, the training school will be arranged in a zig-zag formation to provide sufficient self-shading, while green roofs and walls will feature on most buildings to blend in with the natural terrain. The building is being designed to optimise the use of natural daylight and renewable energy sources, such as wind turbines and photovoltaic and solar panels.
Mott MacDonald’s project director Philip Chan said: “The Hong Kong Fire Services Department has a strong aspiration to design and build a new fire school where it can train its personnel in skills such as firefighting, medical care, search and rescue, operating emergency vehicles and incident command techniques. This will help staff deal with any natural or human-related incidents that Hong Kong will experience in the future.”
The FSTS is scheduled to be completed in the first quarter of 2015.
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