Carmen Pauls Orthner has lived in La Ronge for nearly 10 years, starting with an internship at the local paper, the La Ronge Northerner, in 1997. After completing her journalism degree, Carmen worked at the Northerner from 1998 to 2002 as a reporter/photographer. Together with her colleagues from The Northerner, she received the Canadian Community Newspapers Association's award for "Best News Story - circulation under 10,000" in 2000 for a series of articles related to the Mallard fire and its financial and emotional impact on La Ronge residents. She is currently self-employed, working under the business name Pen for Hire. In 2006, she served as communications officer for the Lac La Ronge Indian Band during a 10-day forest fire crisis, which included a week-long evacuation of several reserve communities and resort areas along the Hwy. 2 corridor. In that capacity, she saw how the area’s fire response approach had evolved since the Mallard fire.