Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Service has been working in partnership with Marlborough College to support the college’s cadet force.

Local firefighters have spent two afternoons with the cadets, working on skills that promote leadership, problem solving, communication and teamwork.

Group manager Dave Geddes said: “We developed the sessions to use basic firefighter skills to challenge these young people and get them working together to succeed.

“Although this initiative was aimed at developing the cadets’ skills, there were also some strong fire safety and road safety messages that came through.”

Sean Bate, staff instructor from the college, said: “They dealt with many different and difficult problems, especially on the road traffic collision exercise, which saw the cadets attempting to release three trapped simulated casualties from two separate vehicles.

“They were tested to the limits in verbal communications skills, planning and problem solving, whilst using a vast array of firefighting equipment in order to extract the casualties from the vehicles.”