She spent 50 years protecting people from wildfires. Then one took her life

Kathy Shoopman, 73, was known in her community as a legendary lookout' and had started her career as a firefighter

Kathy Shoopman had seen more than her fair share of fires. It was her job to do exactly that - and she had an eye for them.

The 73-year-old spent nearly half a century in the woods of far northern California, first as a seasonal firefighter with the US Forest Service and then as a fire lookout, watching for smoke in Klamath national forest, immediately south of Oregon.