Where it all began
Morden Fire & Rescue (MFR) Chief Andy Thiessen had just moved to Killarney 45 years ago and began a job at the Coop downtown.
"I worked right across the street from the fire hall. Every once in a while, the town siren at that time would go off, and all these firefighters would show up and off they would go, and a little while later they would come back. And this happened a few times, and I kind of (thought), 'hmm, I don't know anybody in this community.' So, I walked over one day after they came back from a call. And I just told him who I was and where I worked and that I was possibly interested in joining the fire department if that was a possibility. They told me to show up in a couple of days for their fire drill, and that was the start of 45 years of being in the fire service in the province of Manitoba."
He recalled the leadership that helped him get his start.
"The Fire Chief was Coke Hartwell. He was the owner of the other competition grocery store in the community, so it's kind of ironic. I talked to Coke Hartwell, and he said, 'This is perfect. You're a young guy. We need young guys, and you're now in the community.’ And I said, 'That's how I want to get to know some people in the community.'"
He also mentioned Deputy Chief Jack Garbed as one of his mentors.
Being newly married, Thiessen felt the call to go back to his hometown of Morden.
"I moved back home, and about a month later, I went to the local department here and talked to the fire department at that time, and it was Percy Paracholski who was the chief at the time, and I said that I was interested in coming back to the fire service. And I started right away there as well. So, it's been in my DNA for as long as I can remember now." He said with his voice cracking at the end.
Thiessen has seen a lot of changes in the last 45 years
He recalled in the early days when the town siren would go off for those to hear it in town, and a special ring on the home phones would let firefighters know help was needed. Now, some of the changes are harder to keep up with.
"I've surrounded myself with some smart people who helped me through all that, and that's probably the key, for me anyway, is surrounding myself with lots of good, caring people. It makes my job a whole lot easier. When we're all on the same page and we're all thinking the same as far as how we're going to respond, how we handle a situation, all that kind of stuff, it just helps a lot."
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All for one and one for all
Time and time again, Thiessen has referred to MFR as a family.
"We look at it as if one of us is hurting, then we're all hurting. And so, we try to deal with that the best we can and try to help each other. We've watched our kids grow up, we've watched them graduate, and we've watched them get married. Now they're even having kids, and I'm going, 'Wow, like how long am I going to be doing this?'"
There have been some disappointments and tragedies
Thiessen tearfully recalled, "There's been a few bad ones that I wish never happened, but, you know, they do. Bad things happen to good organizations or good people all the time, and we're no exception. I wish I could have gone through my whole career never losing anybody in a fire, but that wasn't the case either."
There were some highlights along the way
"Actually, going back to the Killarney days, the fellow that I started on the department on the exact same days, his name was Mike Bellew, and he was from Australia. He was in the same boat I was. He didn't know anybody in the community but wanted to get to know some people and set some roots down, that type of thing. When I moved on, so did he. He moved up the ranks there, and when I became Fire Chief in Morden, he became Fire Chief in Killarney the same year. It was kind of ironic, you know, the two of us that started the same day and ended up in the same position."
Highlights
Going into schools to talk about what they do and to make home safety plans is at the top of Thiessen's list.
"Now, I've got a couple of members on our squad that remember me coming in when they were in kindergarten, and they said that they had wanted to be a fireman just like me. That's kind of special where, you know, you talked to some kid that's 5-6 years old. And you (ask yourself) 'What impression am I ever going to make on this kid?' Now, here they are doing something great for their community." Again, Thiessen choked up, "So that's cool."
