Deberra Schroeder made history as the Cleveland Fire Department's first female captain back in 2001. Now she's the first female battalion chief in the city's history.
But it wasn't easy getting there.
Her interest started during a scuba diving lesson in the late 1970s. The instructor was a firefighter and suggested she apply. It took another 6 years and the birth of her son before she became one of the first 10 female fire cadets.
Cleveland hasn't hired another woman since 1989, and now Chief Schroeder is one of only three left in the department. She says that has to change.
Schroeder has no doubt that there are qualified women out there who can handle the physical demands. "Women have a different center of gravity," she explains. "So you carry a ladder differently, but you had to do all the same things that the men were doing."
She was a marathon runner, but still trained for the job. "I had this big backpack and I put 70 pounds of sand in it, then walked that hill at Edgewater," Schroeder recalls.
It wasn't easy three decades ago, but she held her own and it was noticed. Deberra Schroeder earned respect as a firefighter and as a woman.
But she hasn't spent 32 years just fighting fires. Deberra became one of the first paramedics in the department's history, got a nursing degree, completed the police department academy to become an arson investigator.
So yes, she's a police officer too.
Schroeder has earned several different certifications, many of which she paid for herself. But even though she's made it this far, it's bittersweet.
"There's no ceremony, my granddaughters are not seeing me promoted as battalion chief, and any moment it can be stripped away," she says.
Her title is temporary because of a lawsuit that's been going on for 4 years over a disagreement between the union and the city's method of promotion.
So while she has the badge, Deberra Schroeder has yet to receive her white battalion chief helmet and turnout gear.
What she does have is respect from those she leads. And she's going to use that to help encourage more women to consider firefighting as a career.
"I can't retire because I don't have my next generation of women," Schroeder says.