Work has started on a new training centre which will help firefighters learn skills and techniques developed following the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

Bosses say Ashford’s fire station on Henwood Industrial Estate is to be transformed into one of the UK’s “most modern and innovative” firefighter training sites.

The project comes in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire in London with bosses hoping the new facility will give crews valuable experience.

Work on the project, which will see the existing 17m live fire training building demolished and replaced with an 18m high-rise and a detached two-storey support building, started last Monday.

The new building will allow the fire brigade to practise “compartment firefighting” – firefighting in buildings broken up into separate compartments – such as blocks of flats.

The fire station itself will also be renovated and remodelled.

When the plans were approved in 2022, Matthew Deadman, assistant director of Kent Fire and Rescue Service (KFRS), told Ashford Borough Council’s (ABC) planning committee that the Grenfell disaster in 2017 has influenced the service’s plans for training.

“This event has caused all fire services to review how they prepare their firefighters,” he said.

“We need our firefighters to be at the top of their profession at any incident they attend. To do this they need realistic training facilities.

“This allows us to replicate fires we can reasonably foresee happening in tall buildings in Kent, of which Ashford has a number.”

Once complete, bosses say a real fire training facility (RFTF) will simulate realistic scenarios in a high-rise environment, with real flames, providing crews with valuable experience and knowledge.

Features include a specialist smoke filtration and extraction system on the live fire training building, and rainwater harvesting across the site to be used during training exercises.

Ann Millington, chief executive at KFRS, said: “The development is significantly important to us, and it’s essential to further boost the skills of our firefighters so they’re even more prepared and highly competent when responding to fires in really challenging buildings.

“We can only hope we never see a fire like Grenfell Tower ever again, but with enhanced theoretical and practical training already embedded at KFRS, and the introduction of realistic exercises in our new real fire training facility, all our crews will be prepared and the best they can be at an enhanced level for a significant fire like that.

“This project is about future-proofing our operational workforce through high-quality training around complex properties and evolving building design, but it also demonstrates our commitment to creating a sustainable and efficient site, with many environmentally friendly features purposely weaved into the design.”

Work is expected to be completed in December 2025.