Portage la Prairie's firefighters are enjoying their new space. The grand opening of the fire hall's new addition was held yesterday, featuring lunch, speeches, and tours of the updated facility. The $1.3 million project includes three new bays for vehicles, new washroom, a training room, as well as upgrades to the facilities heating and air conditioning systems. Fire Chief Phil Carpenter says rather than just focusing on the new addition, they wanted to ensure the whole building saw improvements. He says the most exciting aspect of the new space if the training room, which can hold 25 to 30 people and will be used for the training of firefighters and public training initiatives.

"In the past, we'd take fire trucks out of the fire hall and create our own classroom within that space. When it was minus 30 out, you can imagine taking the truck out, it's very cold and we had the big overhead heaters running. It wasn't a very conducive atmosphere for training applications. This is going to be a lot better for us."

Carpenter says the project has been a long time coming, and they're happy to finally be in the space. He notes they've been calling for the additional space for quite some time and were thrilled when Council finally agreed to fund the work.

"It's been many years that we've been asking for the addition. Council has to make many decisions about where money is spent, but we're very happy and grateful they approved it, and that it's completed. They're seeing we do need to make things better here for equipment, training, et cetera."

Mayor Irvine Ferris was on hand to cut the ribbon for the new addition and says the updates really represent the importance of the fire hall in the city. He feels this will greatly improve the work of local firefighters, and says he's excited to see the new addition being used.

"It looks great. The contractors have done a terrific job. I think the department has done a great job of really being very patient over the last year while the renovations are taking place. The result looks tremendous."

The city had originally allocated $1 million for the project but once tenders came in, and they had an opportunity to install a new radio tower the cost of the project became $1.3 million.