Beginning in March, a black woman will be at the helm of a major fire department for the first time in U.S. history. Theresa Deloach-Reed, 52, was named chief of the Oakland city fire department. Reed has been fighting fires for nearly 30 years, has seen many changes on the job and calls her appointment “exciting.”

With less that four percent of firefighters female and nearly 6 percent black, Reed says that the key to changing those figures is recruitment. She said, “Women in the fire department have to go out and tell other women it’s a great profession, because there is still this stereotype that women are not firefighters.”