ARROW POINT - There isn't any particular moment when Kathy Flint can say she decided to live in North Idaho.

Flint, 67, was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and spent her formative years in Pennsylvania and Colorado. While she was attending the University of Colorado, Flint's parents decided to follow her grandfather and move to North Idaho.

After graduating college, Flint followed.

"I wouldn't ever want to live anywhere else," she said. "It's the most beautiful place in the world I think."

One day after Flint relocated, a friend of her mother's suggested Flint and her husband, Tom, attend an open house for the East Side Fire District - a primarily volunteer-based fire department tasked with protecting a 90-square-mile area on the southeast side of Lake Coeur d'Alene.

"Neither one of us had any intention of getting involved," Flint said.

However, Flint said they heard the information given during the open house, and it sounded like she should be a firefighter.

"It was an accident," Flint said. "But I just went with it and it was the best thing I ever did."

Flint has been with the East Side Fire District for 17 years. She is the captain of the agency's station at Arrow Point, provides the entire district with secretarial services, and is the chief of the agency's Emergency Medical Services program.

So once you got started, did you just kind of dive in head first? Is that how you ended up in all these roles?

It took me a while, about a year probably, to really get hooked. But then I got hooked and you can't really do something halfway. I've got to give it my all.

You get to train a lot of the volunteers, right? What makes a good volunteer?

A good volunteer will learn from every incident, learn from every training, and be open to knowing that you're never perfect. You can always be better.

Do you enjoy training the volunteers?

I love it. It's so much fun.

I train the EMS people too, and I have to say that suits me better than training firefighters. The topics and subjects are more along my line in EMS, so fire is a little harder for me to teach.

Why do you think that is?

I relate to it more and I love it. I can study it forever, whereas a lot of the fire topics get a little tedious.

We just talked about all the hats you wear, and I know this is a 24/7 job. But ideally, you would be able to take those hats off and just be Kathy sometimes. Is that possible?

It's really hard to do - I live on 36 acres and I rarely go for a walk because it's too far away from my car.

If I do go for a walk or I go hunting, I'll take my radio so I'll know to start running home if something does happen.

But I take my hats off for two weeks a year when we go on vacation.

What is the scariest part about your job? You guys are running toward things that everyone else is running away from, so there would be some fear there I would imagine.

I feel like I would make a really good watchdog because I'm afraid of everything.

One of the biggest fears is someone getting hurt, or an EMS not doing something that someone really needed.

Aside from getting somebody hurt is not knowing what you're going to find when you get to a situation.

How do you manage that fear? Do you use it?

I think so, because when it's over that's when your hands start shaking. You just sort of go into a collapse-mode when it's all over.

Until that time you just do what comes to you by learning, training, and instinct. You perform the way you train.

We've had a crazy amount of wildfires this summer. What's the role of an agency like the East Side Fire District in that kind of bigger-picture fire?

We're the first response. We want to get them while they're small and that's worked so far.

If it does turn into something bigger - the biggest I've seen has only been around 80 acres - then the Department of Lands comes in and takes over. We then supply water, do some fire lines, and whatever else they ask us to do.

We're happy and eager to be the first response and we're more than happy to turn it over to those guys.

So you become the support team then?

Exactly. And Kootenai County just has the best cooperation between its EMS, fire, and police agencies. They're so cooperative and supportive of each other, it's fantastic.

There's been a lot of manmade fires that have either been started intentionally or by a careless person. What goes on in your mind when you hear about those types of fires?

Well when it's intentionally, I just want to know what's going on in their head. I can't even imagine what it could be.

With accidentals, people just don't pay attention at all. Whether it's throwing a cigarette out or making sparks, people just don't think.

I just want to teach them to pay attention.

Firefighting is a pretty male-dominated field. Have there been any challenges associated with being a female in a leadership role with a fire department?

There's been a lot.

I don't know what it's like in a career department because a volunteer department is different in a lot of ways. It's hard to make people do what they don't want to do when they're volunteering, so you cater to the needs of your volunteers.

I am going into my 17th year and it has been a long haul with the guys. I think I can say they are finally accepting that I know what I am doing.

What's your favorite part about being in firefighting?

Having the ability to go help someone in need is the best feeling in the world.

Why is it important for people to volunteer?

My answer is always asking them how they would feel if they called for help and no one came. That's why you should volunteer for your community.

You talked a little about the art you enjoy doing as a hobby. What got you into that and what inspires you to create?

I ran a nonprofit gallery for about four years. People would make things that would hang on a wall and maybe have some three-dimensionality to them. Well I would want them to move.

So I decided that I was going to make things that move and you could touch and play with. I enjoy figuring out how to make things move in the way I want to with gears and camshafts and things like that.