Photo by lynseyaddario / Firefighter Madalyn Schiffel, 26, from Mountain Ranch, California, takes a rest while mopping up a fire that had burned overnight near West Point Station, on September 4. Schiffel was a volunteer firefighter for a year before joining Cal Fire in April; prior to that, she was a professional soccer player in Norway and Seattle after getting drafted out of college. As a professional athlete, physical fitness has always been an integral part of her life, but now danger is an added challenge—which she feels at peace with because it’s her duty, her mission. She says: “I definitely want to push myself to like the limit, whatever that's going to be. I put my mind to it, and I believe that I can do it. And pretty much I achieve anything that I put my mind to.” With increasing levels of drought across the state of California, fires are more intense and burn for longer periods of time. #CALFIRE u.s.forestservice #femalefirefighters #climatechange #LynseyAddario