Capt. Courtney Kelly has had the firefighting bug since she was a little girl.
“Once I became a paramedic, I was, I was sold on fire,” Kelly said.
Kelly, who has been with the Youngstown Fire Department for 15 years, was the last female hired by the department.
It’s little wonder that her daughter, Maddie, now wants to take her shot, ever since completing the firefighter academy at Choffin Career and Technical Center. “Once I did that, then it kind of switched my mind, and I knew that I just wanted to do this job,” Maddie Kelly said.
Last month, Maddie became only the second woman to pass the department’s tough agility test since her mother did it in 2006. Now, she’s on a waiting list, along with other potential recruits.
Of the 28 who took the written exam, only 20 of them took the agility test for the department, and four of them failed it.