WESTBROOK -- An emergency vehicle driving simulator, valued at close to a half-million dollars, has been delivered to the Westbrook Fire Department.

The simulator will not only benefit the city of Westbrook's fire department, but all of the metro fire departments.

Acting Fire Chief William Baker said the state of the art simulator consists of a self-contained trailer and two driving simulator consoles.

The consoles are high powered, computer aided, virtual reality simulators, similar to those used to train pilots in the military and airline industry.

The simulators give fire departments the ability to train their fire and emergency medical services vehicle operators by putting them in driving scenaries that could not be safely duplicated in the real world.

Baker said federal grant monies paid for most of the acquisition costs.