Crews are set to break ground Monday on an expansion to the Morden fire hall.
    
Fire Chief, Andy Thiessen, explains the two truck bays on the east side of the hall will be lengthened to the south. One bay will house the Department's tanker truck that was added to its fleet about a year ago. It is being housed off-site which, noted Thiessen, is not very efficient. The second expanded bay will house the Department's current pumper truck, which will be kept in reserve when it is replaced in the coming years. "It's a fairly common practice in other departments to have back-to-back bays."

"Overall, it is a small project but for us, it's huge. It just makes things more efficient for us to operate and make sure we can maintain our vehicles better," added Thiessen.

The expansion will also feature a new indoor water-fill station, or hydrant.

"We'll use that to fill our tanker quicker," explained Thiessen. "Right now, we have a two-inch water line and it would take, I'm gonna guess here, maybe thirty to forty minutes to fill. With this hydrant, we'll be able to fill it in under ten minutes. That's a four thousand gallon tank."

The hydrant will be used for training.

"We can actually have a hydrant that members can use, take apart, know how things work and why we operate the way we do," added Thiessen.

If all goes according to plan, Thiessen expects to have the expanded bays occupied by the end of the year.