The Emergency Services Training Centre in Blyth has received federal approval to become a marine fire school.
G. B. Industrial Safety Limited will provide the technical knowledge and support staff, while ESTC provides the facility and the administrative service.
Director of Operations Shane Wickens says they currently have ten instructors and they are in the process of training more. He expects the course will attract between 200 and 400 participants to the area every year.
Wickens says in the past, people had to travel to one of seven or eight centres spread out all over Canada to get this type of training, but he says the ESTC is perfectly located close to the port of Goderich and also to the large population of Southern Ontario.
The instructors held their orientation at the ESTC about a week ago and toured around the community to become familiar with the area.
Wickens says it's taken two years to get the program together and get approval to locate the marine school in Blyth and they are now ready to start booking programs.