VIDEO: For the first time, a woman has been promoted to captain at The Mukilteo Fire Department, and she's proving persistence pays off.
As a young woman, Kelli McNees decided she wanted to be a firefighter, but she wasn't so sure how to get there.
"I was like, don't you have to be 6'5'', with the shoulders of a linebacker to pull it off?" McNees said.
With support from her friends and family, McNees passed a written exam but the physical test wasn't so easy when confronted with a big wet hose.
"All you had to do was pick it up, put it over your shoulder, go up to the top of the tower and back down," said McNees. "I couldn't figure out how to get that floppy, wet hose off the ground. I thought, maybe this isn't the thing for me."