Photo: CC/Seattle Municipal Archives

Randall’s Island is now home to a sophisticated simulator, which has been in the works since before the 9/11/01 terror attacks that felled the Twin Towers in New York.

It’s an impressive structure, if the images here are any indication.

The $4.5 million simulator – which is scheduled for completion in 2009 – will be equipped with mock residential, office and commercial layouts to reproduce real-life fire conditions and help firefighters improve their skills in fighting fires in high-rise buildings.

The 4,000-square-foot structure will be a four-story addition to an existing building at the Fire Academy and will feature a fire and flashover simulator, a central smoke system, a dry standpipe system, mock elevators and stairways, a simulated fire command station and video hookups on each floor for real-time review and instruction.

via FDNY Foundation.