Walk around near Pearson airport, with the occasional sound of airplanes flying overhead, and you may come to a place full of burned out buildings and frayed furniture that looks like cross between a Swedish prison and an abandoned rubbish dump. The site is huge, 25 acres, and almost deserted, except for those buildings and shells of Boeing 737s and Dash 8s, and for a while, the only audible sounds are our footsteps on gravel, as today's guide Dwayne MacIntosh, deputy fire chief of the Fire & Emergency Training Institute (FESTI), shows me around one of Toronto's little known gems.

Soon, what looks like fountains of water bubbling up through the gaps in the gravel burst into flames, taking off into the air, as if the air itself is combusting. It is the alight propane evaporating, and the hot fuel spreads closer to us with the wind.

MacIntosh winds down the window. We are only a few metres away and I can feel the heat on my cheeks. "Can you feel it?" he asks. "Yes, yes," I reply, quickly winding the window back up. I look at him imploringly and he calls in the rescue guys, both seasoned fire fighters from France who drive a yellow fire truck over, and within a few seconds have doused it with water from a high-pressure hose and put out the flames.

The fire fighters, both from Montpellier, have come to FESTI, for the same reasons that the Saudi Arabians, Greeks, Belgians, Italians, Portuguese, Bermudians, and much of the rest the world come to the 35,000 square foot institute. Quite simply, it is regarded as one of the world's best. "This place is well known outside of Canada," explains Patrick Stauffer, 41, a firefighter for 15 years. "We like everything about it, especially the overall technique." 

One reason is the facilities. Airport fire departments used to be dirty and environmentally toxic places, explains MacIntosh, until new federal regulations forced the fire services to clean up their act. Firefighters used to start fires by pouring fuel straight onto the ground, and it wasn't until Environment Canada began to take notice of the carcinogens in common fuels that this practice was stopped and the need for their clean disposal became apparent. "In the 1990s, the environment became a big concern so pouring fuels into live fires at airports was no longer an option," explains MacIntosh. "Today, we see ourselves as caretakers of this environment."

FESTI uses the latest technologies, including filtration and fuel separation systems, green roofs and a wall of solar panels to leave as small an environmental footprint as possible. Since it was completed in 2007, it has won 12 environmental, architectural and sustainability awards, including the Ontario Association of Architects Design in Excellence Award. It is also used as the set for the TV series Flashpoint.

To become a world-class centre, FESTI trainers visit other fire services around the world -- MacIntosh went to Beijing last October on a training trip -- to stay up-to-date and learn from other emergency personnel. The strange debris -- the remains of a living room, charred shipping containers, smashed and blackened cars and aircraft scattered across the site -- provide multiple sets for different emergency training situations, and it's rare to be able to practice so many scenarios, he adds.

Toronto is often acknowledged as one of the world's centres for multi-culturalism and that diversity has helped FESTI acquire the skills to host a range of foreign nationals, with 60 percent of trainees from abroad, explains MacIntosh. Partly, this is a matter of extra services -- FESTI brings in translators and offers regional specific cuisines. They also visit other countries, especially those that have indicated an interest on sending trainees, to understand their equipment and practices. Beyond the specifics, it is also FESTI's ongoing evolution: its goal is to learn from the students. That's key to its success, explains Daniel Beaudoin, fire service instructor. "You have to keep up with the evolving technology," he adds. "I love teaching and learning from those who come here. It's a constant education."

Alexandra Shimo is an author and journalist based on the Ossington strip. Her first book The Environmental Equation was published in seven countries. She is currently researching her next book.