KINVER’S fire crew hope their new £1.9 million community station will not only help their own training but also with fire prevention awareness of the villagers.

The state-of-the-art facility, based in Fairfield Drive, will be opened to the public at a community engagement day later this month, however, the Stourbridge News was this week given a sneak-peak behind the fire doors.

Station Manager Derek Stoddart was on hand to provide a guided tour of the building which replaces the former outdated base.

Designed to enable firefighters to respond more efficiently and effectively to emergencies, officers also hope their new base, which features a community room, gym, mock incident training space and disabled facilities, will be a hub where local residents can learn about fire prevention.

Station Manager Stoddart said: “Over the time I have been in the fire service the quota has switched from being a purely response based service to one that concentrates on prevent and response.

“The new community facilities at Kinver Fire Station help to facilitate the work of preventing incidents in and around the area.

“This will reduce the number of incidents in the local community and ultimately help us achieve our vision of making Staffordshire the safest place to be.”

This aim will also be helped by the improved training facilities on offer to the firefighters, which include a building specifically designed for incident scenarios.

The building – a mock up of small detached house – includes movable internal partitions which can be rearranged after every training session so the firefighters can experience different scenarios in the one building.

Watch Manager Lee Smart said: “The new state of the art facilities we now have available to our fire fighters will ensure they receive the best training possible to help protect the people of Kinver.”

The first step on the fireman’s ladder to getting the village knowledgeable about fire prevention comes in the form of the community engagement day on February 26.

Kinver residents will be able to take a look around the new station, between 2pm and 3.30pm and 4pm and 6pm, as well as meet their community fire crew.

Before the doors are open to the public, selected children from local schools are being invited to place pictures, comments and artefacts into a time capsule which will be buried for 25 years.

Station Manager Stoddart said: “We’ve been running a competition with the schools in Kinver for pupils to explain what the fire service means to them.

“The eight students from each school who provide the best responses will be invited on the day to meet the chief fire officer and put items into the time capsule.

“In 25 years time we will dig it up and display what was in it, and hopefully those pupils can visit and have a good laugh at the things they wrote when they were young.”

In the near future, the station’s chief hopes the new community room will be used by a variety of local groups to help spread the message of fire prevention as well as the service’s mission of making Staffordshire “the safest place to be”.