Aug 29, 2018
Miranda Given picked the right summer to seek a job as a forest firefighter if she wanted to be out in the bush a lot, and also have to do a lot of heavy lifting and carrying, which fortunately suits her really well
She talked to the News over the phone this week from Sydenham while on a two day break after 8 days fighting fires. A couple of times this summer she has worked 19 days in a row as the season literally heated up.
The Sydenham resident spent the winter in Guatemala and Mexico after doing a degree in Biology, with a minor in Global development, and is headed to California for a 31/2 year program in Chiropractic medicine. She said that a friend of hers thought that working with the Ministry of Natural Resources firefighting service would be be a good fit for her.
She took the necessary training course and was hired on. She works on a four member crew in Haliburton, one of twelve crews covering the Eastern Ontario region.
“We were doing training mostly in April, and went to our first fire in May,” she said. “It’s been a really good fit for me since I love the outdoors and I enjoy the physical challenge.”
The most physical part of the job is the initial attack when the crew is dropped off at a fire by helicopter. They need to haul all the equipment to the nearest water source, set up the pump and carry 55 pound hose packs through the bush to get the hose in place to fight the fire.
Most of the firefighters working for the service are men, and Miranda is the only woman on her crew. Once they are set up it is not as demanding. They do work from dawn until dusk, and then settle down for the night of camping out each day.
She has enjoyed the job enough to have signed on for an extra couple of weeks, as the fire season continues to be a long and hard one.
“It hasn’t left me a lot of time to spend at home this summer with family and friends, so when I have been off I have made sure to make the most of that time,” she said.
After she is done at the end of the first week of September she will have a week at home before heading to an intensive program in California, where a 5 year program is condensed into 31/2 years with no extended breaks.
“It means I won’t be able to work summers for the fire service after this one, so I am enjoying the work while I am still there,” she said as she prepared to head back to fighting wildfires for the MNR-F.
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