On July 1, Rhoda Mae Kerr will pin five brass bugles on the collar of her Fort Lauderdale Fire and Rescue uniform—the number symbolizes her rank, and five is the highest. On that day Kerr will also make history as the department’s first female fire chief in its 106-year history.
Kerr comes from a lineage of firefighters. Her great-grandfather was a firefighter in New York during the horse-drawn era; her grandfather was a volunteer fire chief in New Jersey; and her father was in the state forestry service, a firefighter in that capacity.
Even with her family history, Kerr says joining the fire service didn’t cross her mind until she grew bored as a PE and health teacher at the high school and middle school level. “I think it’s in my blood,” she says. “It just took a while for it to manifest itself.”