New LaSalle fire hall aiming for January 2025 opening

The LaSalle Fire Department's second fire station at 2160 Front Rd. in LaSalle. Dec. 18, 2024. (Rob Hindi/AM800 News)

The new fire station in LaSalle is expected to be fully operational in January 2025.

Construction on the town's second fire station at 2160 Front Rd. began at the end of October, on the former site of Centennial Arena near Old Front Road.

Gulf Developments is building the new $9-million facility, which will be a two-bay, 14,500-square-foot fire hall.

LaSalle Mayor Crystal Meloche says it's almost complete.

"Just some final touches on the building right now, then fire will start moving their equipment in and being operational in early 2025, hopefully in January sometime," she says.

In March 2020, LaSalle town council approved a three-fire-station operating model and financial plan that includes the existing headquarters station on Normandy Street., a new west station at 2160 Front Rd., and eventually an east station on Laurier Parkway in the area of Disputed Road.

Meloche says this is great for the town of Lasalle.

"We keep on growing, and we want to make sure we have coverage across the entire municipality, so eventually there will be three fire halls in the town of LaSalle to make sure we can get the response times required by the province," she says.

There are several factors that have led to the building of this new station. Areas of predicted future growth within LaSalle in both the short to mid-term and long-term have resulted in the need for greater response capabilities.

In addition, a key factor in the recommendation of additional fire stations is the National Fire Protection Association NFPA 1710 guideline, which requires that fire apparatus and four firefighters arrive at the scene within four minutes.

With a three-station model, 87 per cent of the Town's urban area will be provided initial coverage within four minutes.

This is well above the provincial average for municipalities, which is in the range of 72 per cent for urban geography. It is also above the 75 per cent coverage target for municipalities.

— Rob Hindi/AM800 News