By Jacob Kirn & Amanda Schnieders

We learn early on in Apache 8 how tough a female firefighter has to be: more so than their male counterparts. This film directed by Sande Zeig recalls a time when an all-woman firefighter crew, comprised of members of the White Mountain Apache Tribe in eastern Arizona, successfully contained and extinguished some of the nation’s most ferocious wildfires.

Four women remember small snippets of life, while photographs of marching yellow workers crisscrossing dense forest hills pass by. The stories are impressive and illustrate the community’s pride in these women. The phrase, “they’re better than the men,” is said often, and compares them to the other Apache firefighter crew, the all-male “hotshots.”

The specifics of fire extinguishing are mostly glossed over, but that’s okay; each woman’s path to Apache 8 proves more important. Cheryl Boss, the crew’s long-time leader, deals with personal tragedy twice and has to “face the fire” as a means of coping. Other women are separated from their families, face tribe initiation, and struggle to make a living in a community ravaged by unemployment.

What we end up with is a study of feminine perseverance. To be an Apache woman is to struggle with inherited difficulties, but no one gives up. At any moment, they’ll conquer the flame.