Minneapolis fire officials are looking to expand the department's training facilities for specific types of rescues, including train derailments and building collapses.

Thursday, Assistant Chief Charles Brynteson told a City Council committee that the department is hoping to secure $5 million in next year's state budget, plus a still-undetermined matching amount from the city. The council is in the process of ranking its requests for the state; others on the list include nearly $32 million for work on the 10th Avenue Bridge and $2 million for storm tunnel reconstruction on Interstate 35W.

Additions to the existing training site in Fridley would include areas where trainers could set up -- and quickly clean up -- different rescue scenarios. Those could include structured piles of rubble, partially collapsed buildings or derailed train cars.

Brynteson said the department has had recent calls that ranged from mudslides to bluff rescues to last week's recovery of a young woman who had fallen multiple stories inside an abandoned grain elevator.

"I can list you a number of examples about why this facility is important," he said. "Trained or not, we're going to get called. So let's better be trained."

The department's current training facility is a big draw for other fire departments and agencies from around the region, which Brynteson said should help boost the city's case for state help. The additions would be built on an adjacent 1.5-acre parcel of land that's already owned by the city.

The city will submit its list of requests to the state this fall.

Above: Minneapolis fire recruit Logan Lauritsen holds a ladder in place during an exercise at the Fire Department's training facility in 2013. Jerry Holt / Star Tribune