‘It was in him to save people’: The Pas firefighter mourned

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This article was published 13/07/2022 (1345 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Weeks before his death during firefighter training, Tyler Riley Manych saved a cat from a burning building.

It seems almost cliché, but the 23-year-old didn’t hesitate. He went back in the building, carried the cat to safety and used his own air supply mask to ensure it would survive.

“That’s the loving, caring kid he always was. He would be the first one to jump in and try and save somebody, he’d be the first one to save an animal,” his mother, Candy Jones, told the Free Press on Wednesday. “He was all around an amazing person.”

Manych died in the line of duty Tuesday, after being seriously injured the day before when his all-terrain vehicle rolled on Grace Lake Road in The Pas.

While he was training with the Manitoba Wildfire Service at the time of his death, he wasn’t a novice. Manych had been part of The Pas Fire Department since he was 18, and came from a long line of firefighters that includes his father and grandfather.

Manych was born Nov. 14, 1998, into a family of five brothers and three sisters.

Jones described him as a good-natured child who found himself inclined to kindness. An animal lover, he had several childhood birthdays at the local humane society, where he would ask for donations in lieu of presents.

When Manych was 10, he won a $12,000 draw through the local rotary club and made donations to the animal welfare organization and his school.

“He would let a mosquito suck his blood so he would feed it,” his mother said.

Family remembers him as a nature enthusiast who, as a child, saved up his allowance to purchase a Geiger counter and knew the names of every insect and animal he’d encounter.

“I’ll (miss) all his goofy jokes. He’d have a goofy joke or sarcastic comment or he’d tell you something about science that you’d have no idea what he’s talking about but he knew every single thing about it to the point where his science teachers in grade school would have him come up and explain to the class what was going on in his science projects,” aunt Holly Pich said.

He had dreams of spending the future as a firefighter working within his community. Even after Manych almost died fighting a fire a year prior, Jones said, it never wavered.

“As a mom, I told him, ‘I don’t want you to do this job anymore,’ I was terrified. Every day he went to work, I was terrified,” she said. “But he said, ‘Mom, this is what I love to do.’ It was in him to save people. It was in him to save the land.”

The United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg has recorded 92 firefighters who have died on the job or of illnesses related to work since 1921.

UFFW president Tom Bilous said he hoped Manych’s death would help spur the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service into revamping its urban wildfire training program. City firefighters spent weeks tackling wildfires in Assiniboine Forest in 2019. Bilous said crews weren’t as prepared as they could have been.

“We’ve been very fortunate to have a wet spring, because historically, spring is the worst time for wildland fires… But the program has been, I would say, somewhat neglected. And we need to get back to training,” Bilous said.

“Every day, I dread getting a phone call about one of our members being injured or, God forbid, killed. Whenever there’s an area that I feel we are under-resourced and under-prepared, that’s always a cause for concern.”

Jones is now helping plan memorials for her son. She said she was moved when the community gathered outside The Pas Fire Department building for a candlelight vigil Tuesday — a reminder Manych was loved by many.

“In the back of my mind, I was terrified every day on his job. I was terrified that something would happen and now it’s my reality,” she said.

“He just really needs to be recognized and honoured and remembered for everything that he’s done in his short life.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca