The department now squeezes four trucks into the firehouse, with barely enough room to walk between them.

A new five-bay firehouse to be built immediately to the east of the current fire station at Jefferson and Monroe will fix that.

After more than five years of planning, officials broke ground for the new firehouse Tuesday during a brief ceremony.

Fire Chief Jason White said the new building will be a game changer.

The new station will also include a kitchen, office and a training room.

With about 30 volunteer firefighters, the Pittsfield Fire Department covers the city and the outlying Rural Pittsfield Fire Protection District, which includes parts of eight townships, as well as the villages Detroit and Time.

White said the department began pushing for the new station three years ago.

"The city's kept (the station) up really well, but the trucks were getting bigger and the building is not," he said.

The $765,000 building is being funded through a $600,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture loan that will be paid back over 30 years with an annual interest rate of 2.875 percent. The department has also been saving about $20,000 a year to help cover the construction.

Thanks to a voter-approved city charter amendment authorizing funding, an $8 million renovation to four city fire stations is currently underway. The stations will receive larger equipment bay doors, gender-specific locker rooms, kitchens, fitness rooms and more.

The Brooklands station, on Auburn Road near John R, will have 2,000 square feet of extra space when completed later this summer. Sleeping areas for employees on a 24-hour shift include beds, desks and wardrobes, with lighting and alarm sounds designed for maximum impact. New windows keep the sleeping areas dark.

The department's only rescue truck -- which is used for structure fires and major accidents, with its Jaws of Life extrication equipment -- was built in 1998. It'll now become a spare, to be used when and if the new one, to cost about $500,000, is sidelined for repairs.

Ladder 2, which is stationed at the Branch Street station, was built in 1995. Its replacement will cost about $830,000.

Fire Chief Jeff Winward said the new apparatus will save the department on maintenance costs.

"When they start to get 20 years old, they get pretty costly to maintain and repair," he said.

The Fire Department has been on a roll lately in obtaining federal grants.

Last September, the department won a $1.9 million grant to hire 12 new firefighters. Firefighters hired through that funding, as well as several others, recently joined the department after having completed training at the state's firefighting academy.