All firefighters dedicate their lives in service to others, but in the case of Kim Bergman, Anna and Shelby County’s first female firefighter, this passion for service extended beyond the years she was able to volunteer as a firefighter in Anna. Her years as a firefighter began later in her working life as she waited until her younger children were in middle school before she launched into the training it would take for her new profession. It was in 1985 when her husband Tom, a volunteer firefighter for Anna, and then Fire Chief Gene Hoelscher encouraged her to follow her dream of joining them and the other men who offer their service to the Village of Anna.
Kim’s initial training of 36 hours covered a range of skills such as advancing hose lines, running air packs, and operating all of the fire equipment. From there, Kim put in many additional hours learning all three levels of Haz-Mat procedures, incident command, and water movement. These may sound routine for many men, but Kim had the extra challenge of standing only 5’4” and weighing only 120 pounds. Undeterred, Kim passed all of her certifications and was able to liver her dream of firefighting as a volunteer for Anna from 1985 through 1993 when serious health issues put a premature end to her service.
Even during the time of her volunteer firefighting service, Kim was fulfilling her larger goal of service to others in her full-time job as she worked previous to 1985 as a Home Health and Hospice employee of Wilson Hospital. She especially loved older patients with whom she formed a caring bond. After her firefighting career ended, Kim spent 3 ½ months caring for her terminally ill mother until she passed after which Kim spent time with her brothers in Florida helping them to adjust to living without their mother. Upon her return, she began work at Dorothy Love doing Home Health work for the next 10 years until she began the toughest battle yet, her battle with cancer. She lost this battle in January of 2016 when she died at the age of 61.
Even before that, Kim and husband Tom, who was the Assistant Chief of the Anna Volunteer Firefighters and served over 34 years, had passed on their devotion of service to others. Their daughter Gina trained as a firefighter and EMT and worked in Waynesfield until her recent move back to Anna. While not in the same profession, their son John serves all of us as an Air Force pilot stationed in Little Rock, AK where he flies the C-130.