MUKILTEO, Wash. — For the first time, a woman has been promoted to captain at The Mukilteo Fire Department, and she's proving persistence pays off.
As a young woman, Kelli McNees decided she wanted to be a firefighter, but she wasn't so sure how to get there.
"I was like, don't you have to be 6'5'', with the shoulders of a linebacker to pull it off?" McNees said.
With support from her friends and family, McNees passed a written exam but the physical test wasn't so easy when confronted with a big wet hose.
"All you had to do was pick it up, put it over your shoulder, go up to the top of the tower and back down," said McNees. "I couldn't figure out how to get that floppy, wet hose off the ground. I thought, maybe this isn't the thing for me."
But she persisted, and a year later passed the physical test and was picked up as a volunteer.
McNees was two weeks into paramedics training when 9/11 hit, which only cemented her career path even more.
"It was horrific. There's fire and there were planes and people everywhere," she said. "I thought to myself, I still wanna do this."
Now, 23-years after her unsuccessful bout with that wet hose, McNees has been promoted to captain at the Mukilteo Fire Department. She's the first woman to ever hold that position in their department.
McNees said she's never experienced any discrimination as a woman in a predominantly male profession. On the contrary, she's received nothing but encouragement, which is something she believes is critical to anyone, male or female, who hopes to follow in her footsteps.
"I want them to pick a goal, whatever goal they want, and do all the work they need to do to get there," McNees said, now 47. "Don't let anybody tell you you can't do it and definitely surround yourself with people who tell you that you can."
McNees is also a mother. Her 11-year-old daughter, Kassidy, recently broke the news that she wants to be a teacher, not a firefighter. Although, ladder climbing is apparently still in her blood.
"She did figure out that the principal is in charge of the whole school, so she might go that route," McNees said, laughing.
Like mother, like daughter, as McNees said she plans to become a fire chief one day.
"I'm always looking at the next goal," she said. "I can stand as tall as any of the men I work with."