Teanna Paris
If you dream big and work harder, limitations don't matter. And that holds even for the 21-year-old wildland firefighter from our town who always thought that her petite size might hinder her from pursuing a career in firefighting.
Teanna Paris, an alumnus of St. Ignatius of Loyola Catholic Secondary School, shared more about her physically demanding life for several months a year at a base nearly 2,000 kilometres away from home.
A wildland firefighter works in all weather conditions and even in isolated places, trying to combat fires with prevention and suppression techniques while handling occupational hazards like intense heat and smoke.
"Fighting fires in the woods is very different. Whenever there are reports of people having a campfire and a spark setting off a bunch of trees and putting half the woods on fire spots, we would get called in," she explained. Based out of Sioux Lookout near Winnipeg, Paris works as a wildland firefighter for the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry.
Paris, a brave and fun-loving young woman, began working as a wildland fire ranger last spring. Only during her four-month structural schooling in firefighting in 2021 from a private school in Toronto did she learn about wildland firefighting.
In fact, Paris wanted to pursue radiation technology as a career and didn't think about firefighting until college because subconsciously, "one thing that pushed me away from learning firefighting was my size." She added that a girl of small stature at her college helped her overcome her fear. "This girl was from the fire program, and after meeting her, I decided to go into firefighting."
However, one of her biggest challenges was indeed passing the annual fitness test to qualify for the national level.
"Most of the equipment that I work with is like basically half of my weight. But this year, I really pushed myself to qualify for the national level. I finally got to join my crew early this year to Alberta," Paris mentioned.
Working 16 hours for 14 days at a stretch is not easy, but for the young woman on frequent helicopter rides tracking wildfire, the experience of "just being upfront and up close to fire" keeps the interest alive. She also looks up to her father, a former firefighter.
"A lot of people looked up to him. Sharing my experiences over a phone call helps me reconnect with him," Paris said.
Having attended to several fires in the Sioux Lookout district in northern Ontario in the past few months, her crew is currently working on two big fires.
"When we get called out for a fire, we can be out in the bush for 16 hours daily for a maximum of 14 days. We don't come home and are camping out there to handle the emergency." When on the job, firefighters like her often don't have cell service and can't contact their families back home for days except for occasionally using the crew leaders' satellite phone.
Fortunately, Paris, who considers herself an "adrenaline junkie, has a natural drive and feels her heart racing when she's up "close to huge flames of fire out in the woods."
At leisure, she spends time with her friends and enjoys boating and fishing while soaking in the beauty of nature.
