WBRZ - Baton Rouge

BATON ROUGE - The St. George Fire Protection District will soon have a new simulator to train its firefighters on how to drive fire trucks in emergency situations.

The district, which includes south East Baton Rouge Parish, will purchase a driver's training simulator that can replicate the instrumentation, controls and field of vision of an actual St. George fire truck.

Boyd Westbrook, St. George's chief of operations, says the simulator, which will be purchased with a $196,000 grant awarded by FEMA's Assistance to Firefighter Grant Program, generates three-dimensional motion for a greater sense of realism.

Westbrook says the device even has scenarios where other drivers run red lights in front of the truck or won't pull over to the side of the road so the truck can pass it.