Northern Ireland Fire And Rescue Service Learning And Development Centre

Northern Ireland Fire & Rescue Service’s Learning & Development College, located just outside Cookstown, is a Northern Ireland Executive Flagship Project and the largest investment undertaken by NIFRS. From summer 2024 the site will serve as the central training centre for all NIFRS personnel and other emergency services across the UK and Ireland. The college combines an Academic Building — classrooms, workstations, a lecture hall seating up to 220 people, kitchen and dining, gym and changing facilities — with extensive purpose-built operational training assets: a six‑storey tactical firefighting facility for live fire training, a training warehouse, mock fire station, flood water facility, call‑out village, urban search and rescue area, drill tower, motorway and embankment driving area, high‑volume pump training, decontamination zone and industrial training areas. Phase 1, including the tactical building, opened in September 2019, with Phase 2 progressed under the wider c. £50m project. The site targets high sustainability standards and provides opportunities to partner and host specialised training and events for regional services.