The Lakeland Fire Department opened its new training facility, which cost approximately $3 million to build, on Monday.
Rather than cut a ribbon, members of the department and the Lakeland City Commission participated in a ceremonial "hose uncoupling," a fire department tradition.
"This training center is going to mean so much, to provide top-quality training to the best men and women in the business," Fire Chief Douglas E. Riley said.
In late 2019, Lakeland city commissioners approved a nearly $2.4 million contract with Lakeland-based Strickland Construction for the new facility. Construction started shortly after. A press release from the department said the new training center has been in the works for more than eight years. The facility features new indoor classrooms, which Riley said will prevent trainings from needing to be called off because of intense heat, rain or other hazardous weather conditions.
"We never, in our 104 years of existence, we never had covered training," Riley told The Ledger.