Page 46 - Lubbock Senior Link Magazine Summer 2022 - Online Magazine
P. 46
PAIGE PURVIS
P
Paving theWay
a
y
a
ving theW
by LaVila Henry
Upon her graduation from Tech fires burned a total of 436,000 acres
in 2014, her first goal had been of Texas land.
accomplished. By then, she had
fallen in love with West Texas and After two and a half years, she
the people who live here, and after a was promoted to Regional Fire
temporary position with Texas Parks Coordinator and became the face of
and Wildlife as a Park Ranger, she the agency to their customers and
returned to Lubbock and worked as their cooperators (state and federal
an Environmental Health and Safety agencies like the Texas Division
Assistant. of Emergency Management and
the National Weather Service.)
She noted, “While at this position, Their biggest customers were local
my best friend got a job as a resource volunteer fire departments (VFDs).
specialist with the Texas A&M Forest
Service. It sounded like a perfect “I really enjoyed getting to know the
blend of working outside and local communities, fire chiefs and
interfacing with the public.”
In 2016, she was hired as
a member of the Caprock
rowing up on an acreage in Task Force. In that position,
Liberty Hill, Texas, Paige she served as a resource
Ggained an appreciation for specialist or boots-on-the-
nature and the outdoors. A career ground firefighter. In early
behind a desk wasn’t the desire March 2017, Paige’s duties
of her heart. She wanted to be a called her to be one of the
Forest Ranger, and when she started firefighters extinguishing
her college career at Texas Tech in two fires in the Northern
2010, she felt a degree in Natural Panhandle of Texas—the
Resources Management would take Dumas Complex Fire and
her in the direction she wanted Lefors East Fire. At that
to go. During her college years, a same time, in the same
summer job as a Park Ranger in the general vicinity, other crews
beautiful mountains of Colorado, fought the Perryton fire that
near Steamboat Springs, helped her burned a whopping 318,000
to realize she was on the right track. acres. The Perryton fire
She loved it. became the third largest fire
in Texas history. Those three
46 Lubbock Senior Link
