The new fire station in LaSalle has officially opened with firefighters now responding to calls from Station #2.
Construction of the new $9-million site located at 2190 Front Road began at the end of Oct. 2023.
The development on the two-bay, 14,500-square-foot fire hall came at a cost of $9-million by Gulf Developments.
The addition of this second station in the town will ensure that 87 per cent of LaSalle's urban area receives initial emergency coverage within four minutes, surpassing the provincial average of 72 per cent for urban areas.
LaSalle fire chief and director of fire service, Ed Thiessen, says this is good news for residents.
"It increases our response with the number of firefighters that are responding to an incident, but it should also, depending on where the incident is, it will reduce response times. Both of those aspects only help the residents of our community."
He says since opening the station on Sunday, the station responded to four calls in the first 24 hours of service.
"I would just hope that the community realizes how much this increases the service, and how appreciative they should be of council for putting money aside for a project this large."
The new fire station is part of the Three Fire Station Operating Model approved by LaSalle Council in Mar. 2022.
Thiessen says plans for a third fire station will depend on the growth of the town.
"The Town of LaSalle continues to grow at a very fast pace, and we're going to go back out and do another fire master plan, and see what the right timing would be or at what point we should consider the start of a third station."
An open house celebration is planned for the spring when residents will have an opportunity to tour the new facility and meet with the firefighters who serve their community.