CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- The City Council’s Public Safety Committee on Friday easily gave its approval for Acting Commissioner Annette Nance-Holt to officially become Chicago’s first female fire commissioner.
It’s all but a certainty that Nance-Holt will be confirmed for the top job at next Wednesday’s full Chicago City Council meeting. She won universal praise at her hearing and told aldermen about her unlikely rise through the ranks.
She said she never dreamed of becoming a firefighter, because she never saw one who looked like her -- certainly not a woman. She took the firefighters' exam almost on a dare with some friends, she recalled.
Nance-Holt, who’s African-American, said the fire department would benefit from changes to make the ranks and command staff look more like Chicago.
That all begins, she says, with getting a more diverse group of people to take the firefighters exam. She said the department hopes to have a new firefighters’ exam given by the end of this year or beginning of next.