Ashley Tidwell, 31, is currently the only active woman volunteer firefighter out of 35 members with the Alvaton Volunteer Fire Department in Alvaton, Ky. Out of over 1.1 million firefighters in the United States, only 7 percent of those are women. Tidwell has been a nurse for 11 years and a flight nurse for three. After witnessing and assisting in a motorvehicle crash, Tidwell realized her true calling. “In that moment I realized that in helping the fire and EMS who arrived, that I wasn’t fulfilling my calling.” Tidwell who was an emergency room nurse at the time said, “My heart belonged to pre-hospital.”