Photo by lynseyaddario / Melissa Bell, 36, conducts an operation on the Dixie fire to clean up the remaining brush after flames swept through the area, leaving dangerous brush "fuel" unburned—which potentially could spread fire—near Westwood, California, on August 27. This was Bell’s seventh season with Cal Fire, where she often works 24-hour shifts. “It's not just coming to work and working with people,” Bell says. “This is my family... It's like blood to me, because you spend long days working with different people and you become a family.” Photographed with a grant from the National Geographic Society insidenatgeo u.s.fireservice #femalefirefighters #LynseyAddario