Kimberly Lightley Kimberly Lightley is a veteran of the U.S. Forest Service and a surviving member of the Prineville Interagency Hotshot Crew from Oregon. In addition to being a former wildland firefighter, she has worked as a Risk Management Program Specialist with the U.S.
Forest Service Fire and Aviation Management Division, and as the National Program Manager for Stress First Aid for Wildland Firefighters. Kimberly now manages her Limited Liability Company (LLC) consulting firm that focuses on providing training in Crisis Leadership. She has long been an educator and advocate for first responder well-being, both nationally and internationally. On July 6, 1994, as a member of the Prineville Hot Shots, Kimberly responded to the South Canyon Fire on Storm King Mountain in the White River National Forest near Glenwood Springs, Colorado. What was initially thought to be a routine 100-acre mop-up job of a smoldering fire quickly transformed into an incident that left the assigned crew battling more than 2,000 acres of raging wildland fire. After being given the order to run to a safety zone and deploy their shelters, a total of fourteen firefighters were trapped in the inferno and lost their lives - nine of those who died were Prineville Hotshots. While attempting to flee the intense flames, Kimberly was injured but survived. It was a firefighting tragedy in the truest sense of those words. Afterwards, Kimberly suffered severe survivor's guilt, and to this day, cannot figure out HOW she survived that fire. But maybe something cosmic has taught us WHY she survived - perhaps it was in part to use her passionate spirit and talents to tell the story of what the Hotshots went through that day on
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