Marie Grondahl found her forte fighting fires over 30 years ago. Since then, Grondahl worked her way up to Fire Marshal and then Deputy Chief—becoming the first female Chief-level officer in the Duluth Fire Department’s history. Following a successful career, she is hanging up her hat. Friday marked her last day on the force.
"I was one of the first three women that was hired. We were all hired the same year and it was hard at first because women just weren’t in the fire service at that time. A lot of people still called us firemen instead of firefighters,” Grondahl said.
At this time, the fire station was not equipped to accommodate female fire fighters. "They didn’t even really have the accommodations for here. You know, like locker rooms and things. They did make them shortly after we got hired, but for a while, we didn’t even have locker rooms. We had to change in a bathroom or different areas,” Grondahl said.