This Milwaukee Fire Department veteran is poised to become the highest-ranking Black female fire official in city history – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Milwaukee Fire Chief Aaron Lipski on Friday nominatedDeputy Chief Sharon PurifoySmoots to be the department's assistant chief. If approved, Purifoy-Smoots will become the highest ranking Black, female fire official in city history.

Recognizing the historicmoment, the Milwaukee Fire Department opted to hold the announcement event at the Wisconsin Black Historical Society.

"It is monumental for not just a single person, not just a single department. Not just a single city. It's monumental for a fire service, monumental for our state," said Lipski.

Cavalier Johnson, the first African Americanto be elected mayor of Milwaukee, attendedLipski's announcement and talked about the significance of representation in positions of authority.

"You're opening doors and opening eyes to so many people, so many kids, kids who live in neighborhoods like this, about the possibilities, because they can see their own reflection in you," Johnson said.

"This promotion I think reflects her background, her hard work, as well as her accomplishments," he added.

Purifoy-Smoots has been with the fire department since 2003. She started as a firefighter and moved up the ranks eventually becoming a battalion chief in 2019, and served most recently as deputy chief of emergency medical services.

She has also served as a fire cadet instructor and as director of recruitment.

Purifoy-Smoots was never recruited by the fire department. She took a test offered by the city and thought she did well but didn't hear anything about her resultsfor 13 years.

She credits the Milwaukee Brotherhood of Firefighters a faction of Black firefighters within the fire department for filing an EEOC complaint in the 1990s which providedopportunity for people of color and women to join the department.

"If you would have known me 20 some years ago, firefighting was never in my future. But I have done really well in the career, moved up the ladder, and it wasn't by me doing this by myself," said Purifoy-Smoots.

Black women, and women in general, have not historically made up a large portion of firefighters in Wisconsinand nationally. Purifoy-Smoots said she recognizes her responsibility to provide opportunities for others.

"I am glad that I am first. But, I know my first is not going to mean much to me unless I am directly responsible in getting the second and the third and the fourth here," she said.

Lipski's nomination will need to be approved by the city's Fire and Police Commission.Dana World-Patterson, a member of the commission, attended Friday's event, indicating a likely favorable review from the commission. Lipski went as far to call her a "shoo-in."

More: 'It's about time': Milwaukee reacts to Cavalier Johnson's milestone as city's first elected Black mayor

More: Fire and Police Commission appoints Aaron Lipski to four-year term as fire chief

Contact Drake Bentley at (414) 391-5647 orDBentley1@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DrakeBentleyMJS.

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This Milwaukee Fire Department veteran is poised to become the highest-ranking Black female fire official in city history - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel