PORT ROYAL -- Vanessa Dominguez needs vacations, too. Is it too much to ask for occasional time away from the daily grind and occasional backbreaking labor of being a firefighter?
The Port Royal firefighter doesn't think so. Last month, she hopped a plane to Washington state, where she knew she could enjoy a 'relaxing' week of climbing the 14,000-foot Mount Rainier.
"You don't go on vacation with Vanessa," notes fellow firefighter Daniel Byrne, who considers a real vacation one equally split between the beach and sleep.
Dominguez says people try to reason with her that a vacation consists of a cruise and sitting by the pool.
"Well, this is a vacation to me," she says of her mountain-climbing trip.
Adventure is what brings this 24-year-old woman to the highest peaks and the more dangerous getaways, where, at 130 pounds, she can lug a 90-pound backpack up a steep mountain and prove herself to herself.
"Adventure takes me all over the world," she says. "There's something about adrenaline. If it doesn't have adrenaline: OK, are we going to move anytime soon?"
Dominguez, originally from Venezuela, where she was a member of the volunteer mountain rescue team, was drawn to the Northwest mountain because of the extreme weather conditions Mount Rainier offers to a young firefighter seeking a challenge.
"You can go to Colorado and you can go to a 14,000-foot peak, no problem. But it's not going to be as unique as this one with the weather patterns," she says.
Indeed, her Mount Rainier climbing party stopped the trip short at the 10,000-foot mark because it was too dangerous to continue.
Dominguez, who also serves as the department's translator, is often questioned because she is a woman in a male-dominated profession that demands strength and endurance.
One of two full-time female firefighters in her department, Dominguez finds herself faced with proving her ability to others, too.
"It's funny when people ask me what I do for a living," she says.
When she tells them she works for the fire department, she says people often ask if she's a secretary.
"No, I'm a firefighter," she says proudly.
In 2001, Dominguez was the first female firefighter from the Beaufort and Port Royal fire departments to compete in the state's firefighters' endurance competition.
Dragging a 185-pound dummy in the last leg, Dominguez had competed her heart out, passing out within feet of the finish line.
"I just like putting challenges to myself," she says. "That does not mean that I always accomplish my challenges."
"It's about heart," Byrne says.
