An eight-month process has concluded with the Winkler and Morden fire departments gaining some new firefighters.
    
This past weekend five new Winkler recruits and six Morden recruits passed their practical test for Level One Fire Fighting.  The testing took place in Brandon, Sunday.

"Part of becoming a firefighter here is doing training to complete Level One, which is an internationally recognized level of training," said Winkler Fire Chief Richard Paetzold.

Paetzold said the new members will be a good fit for their team. "We've got a mixture of young and those that have a little more life experience, so it's been a good

Morden Fire Department's new recruits, (L-R) Ryan Funk, Kelly Davison, Mark Nelson, Francis Campbell, Chris LaRocque, Ben Wiebe (Photo submitted by the Morden Fire Department)combination. They've definitely gelled together as a team and have probably established friendships that will go well into the future."

Paetzold said the practical aspect of the process is just one of the steps to become a full-fledged member. He said the recruits will take their written test June 22nd, followed by an orientation, at which point they'll be ready to jump on the truck when a call comes in.

"I'm excited for the guys, the Winkler fellows and ours as well," added Morden Fire Chief Andy Thiessen.  "This is a good accomplishment, they put in a ton of hard work this winter.  It's exciting even for us as chiefs to see the accomplishments and the smiles on their faces when they've completed their tasks."

The 6 news members in Morden brings their complement to a full department, which Thiessen says is a bonus.  "I know a lot of departments across Manitoba are having a tough time of recruiting or even retaining their volunteers.  So I feel very blessed right at the moment that we have a full squad."

Paetzold noted the recruitment process was a combined effort by the two departments and said it was a good example of how the Morden and Winkler fire departments work together. Both departments had four instructors each sharing the load of instructing over the last eight months.  "There was big time commitment required of the instructors on both fire departments, so I thought it was a good collaborative effort to get a good end result."

Thiessen said because the departments work together a lot, it was also nice to train together as it gave these new recruits a feeling to working collaboratively right off the bat.  "This way we can also share our instructor network so it doesn't put all the onus on a couple of guys."