Falck Beefs Up Fire Training Using the Cloud

Falck Fire Services Nederland (Falck) will be using the XVR On Scene simulation platform in the cloud to train their Fire Services in several locations around the Netherlands. Falck was looking to expand its training and assessment toolkit with simulation-based scenarios, and with XVR in the cloud, they have found a solution that is scalable, efficient, and easy for each Fire Services team to work with independently and without acquiring heavy-duty hardware.

Falck is currently working on a pilot project to get each Falck location ready to take up virtual training with XVR On Scene. By conducting their trainings through the cloud, they run XVR’s software on virtual machines, accessible through any internet browser. This gives users the flexibility to run sessions from any PC or laptop with an internet connection from wherever they want, and without having to invest in expensive hardware for each user within the organisation.

The project was initiated by Anton van de Goor, teamleader at Kijfhoek, and Michiel Steegmans and Alwin Dillen, team member/crew at Kijfhoek, the latter of which has been the main driving force due to his experience with XVR’s platform in a previous role. The team is building a localised environment for each of Falck’s Fire Services locations based on maps and pictures from the industrial sites and their surroundings to make them easily recognisable for the teams in each location. They are even creating any objects needed that are not currently available in the XVR object library. Each team will initially receive one scenario, moulded on a standard exercise from each location, to get started training incidents such as fire and hazmat. The XVR On Scene scenarios are easily customisable, and instructors can create incidents of varying severity and with different learning objectives by adjusting factors such as wind speed or type of hazardous material, thereby being able to offer multiple types of trainings with one scenario. Going forward, Anton van de Goor and Alwin Dillen’s team will be providing remote support as well as building any new scenarios requested from their colleagues. They will also be training at least two operators in each Fire Services team to ensure the availability of staff with the appropriate skills to conduct trainings using XVR.

“If we are to train in live surroundings, we would be doing so on industrial premises, which are always running,” explains Commercial Manager of Falck Fire Services Nederland, Berthil van den Poll. “So for us, it’s easier to train complicated scenarios, such as railyard incidents or industrial fires, virtually. That way, we don’t disturb our customers’ business processes.”

Looking for more on simulation and training for firefighters? Check out the latest edition in our series:  Training to Answer the 911 Call – Part 3.

Berthil van den Poll adds: “The most important thing for us is to have competent staff, and they need to be prepared for anything that could happen on an industrial terrain. You need to test your knowledge through assessments; you need to train your skills by completing exercises; and next to that you need to maintain your competencies. XVR covers both skills and competencies, and so it provides an easy way of training procedures without having to go outside. That’s why we find XVR On Scene to be a nice addition to what we’re already doing. We actually use it for our own quality improvement and using it in the cloud means it’s more efficient to use and easier to roll out to multiple locations. So this was a really good option for us.”

In the future, they would also like to create more scenarios based on past incidents.

Chemical Cluster Delfzijl will be the first of the first four locations to start their training efforts via the cloud. If the roll-out goes well, Berthil van den Poll sees the potential to expand the project beyond the Dutch borders.