By FireRescue1 Staff
CLIFTON, N.J. — A fire department promoted a woman to an officer position for the first time in its history.
NorthJersey.com reported that the Clifton Fire Department promoted firefighter Angelina Tirado to the rank of lieutenant.
Tirado said she hopes to “continue moving up,” aiming to one day become deputy chief.
In 2010, Tirado became the first female firefighter hired at the department, and was added to a promotion list in 2016 made by Chief Kevin McCarthy.
“She’s very capable of filling the role,” he said.
Tirado said her father, Alberto, was a firefighter who was killed in the line of duty in 2001 when a roof collapsed while he was looking for children thought to be trapped on the top floor of a three-story building.
“We’d be driving in our car and my dad would follow the plumes of smoke and get out of the car and start helping the guys,” she recalled. “I thought, ‘I want to do that,’” Tirado said.