The Los Angeles Fire Department will hold the grand opening of its new Fire Station 81 Saturday. Station 81, a regional fire and paramedic station and training center is built on a site that once housed the General Motors Assembly Plant.

The facility features a 15,000-square foot fire and paramedic station, an 8,000-square foot apparatus storage building, a 2,500-square foot multi-purpose room and a 25,000-square-foot training complex The training complex including a six-story drill tower, classrooms, offices, men's and women’s shower and locker rooms, dormitory, kitchen facility and auditorium.

This San Fernando Valley centralized training location will result in a significant reduction in response time in the event of a major emergency, LAFD said. Station 81 will serve the community of Panorama City and act as a staging area for large-scale emergencies, a brush fire redeployment location, explorer post, and an EMS district office.

The facility’s exterior was designed to blend in with the community, while the interior has meeting space for the community and will allow for future expansion. Station 81 is able to host various functions including neighborhood council meetings, CERT meetings, CPR classes, temporary disaster relief offices and other community events. Currently, the fire station houses one engine company, one paramedic rescue ambulance and one EMT ambulance.

The storage facility is a new concept for LAFD that contains the storage capacity of four bays--three truck size and one engine size bay--along with a pit that allows for undercarriage cleaning of heavy apparatus with a clarifier to support proper wastewater disposal.