GULF SHORES — Hartly Brokenshaw looks over the city’s new Fire Station No. 1 and likes what he sees.

“Nice,” the fire chief said. “We’re in, we don’t have necessarily all the pictures on the wall and that type thing but we’re in and operating out of it. It’s working really good.”

His department will welcome the public out Saturday to have refreshments during a 10 a.m. dedication ceremony and tours will begin shortly thereafter. Tours will continue through 3 p.m.

“It’s really turned out good and I’m excited for everybody to come out and see it,” he said.

Brokenshaw said the crews were happy to move out of the tiny temporary quarters in another city building just southeast of the new site, but are adjusting to having more room.

“They love it,” he said. “It’s so much bigger than what they were used to even in the old station, the original station that was here.”

The new building transferred well from the concept to the brick and mortar final product, Brokenshaw said.

“It really turned out exactly like I thought it was going to,” he said. “There’s been some small things, but overall everything has worked out exactly like we thought it was going to.

“In our storage area upstairs we’re going to be able to use it for a lot more than just storage. We’ve got some other ideas for that area because it’s so much bigger than we thought it was going to be.”

One of those ideas will include an area upstairs for additional training space.

“We already had plans to do a wet lab which is sprinkler systems and pipe systems in the classroom area,” he said. “And since we have so much room in the storage area we’re going to make that something called a dry lab and they will have all your fire alarm systems and electronic alarms, suppression systems and things like that. It’s going to take a little bit of time to get that set up.”

The upstairs classroom has already been put to use for firefighter training and public CPR and first-aid classes. Also included is a workout area with weights and weight and cardio machines.