When Prince Rupert firefighter Rocky Paolo matched five consecutive icons on PlayNow.com's Chain Reactors to win the $302,485 jackpot, not once did he even consider hanging up his helmet and axe for an early retirement.
In fact, Paolo says he's got "at least another five years" in him.
"I've never had less than two jobs at a time in my life," says Paolo, who also operates a commercial cleaning business on the side. "I've always said that if I didn't like the job I wouldn't be there, but I just love what I do. I love [being a firefighter] just as much as when I first started more than 25 years ago."
Paolo won the jackpot on September 24.
"I had just come home and my wife was making lunch when I thought I'd play for a bit," says Paolo. "I was actually trying to play for the smaller $7,000 purse and I thought I had won a few free plays. So I was shocked to see it was more than that. Going back to work after that ... that was the longest six hours of my life."
"I felt dizzy, like I was going to faint. I even thought I was going to start crying."
While Paolo isn't calling it a career yet, he and his wife plan to pay off some bills and invest their winnings, though his family does have plans to do a road trip to see the beauty of British Columbia.
The odds of getting five icons in a row is one in 10 million.
