Melanie Anderson, shown here in her firefighting jacket and helmet, was one of seven women to join the Seattle Fire Department in July 1981, the largest group of women to make it through the program thus far, bringing the total number of female firefighters in the department to 24. Their success was attributed, in part, to a special training program for women and minorities. The women trained for an extra four months, then joined a six-week program with minority males before joining the class of white male recruits.

Melanie Anderson served on active duty a few years, then became the first woman accepted to study arson investigation at the Fire Academy in Bethesda, MD. Ms. Anderson became a fire investigator with the Seattle department and later alternated between firefighting and investigation. During her 18 years with the department, she served on Engine 33, Engine 13 and Engine 26. Melanie Anderson died at 41 years old in 1999 after a long battle with Hodgkin's disease.

Caption information source: "Melanie Anderson, 41, Among Seattle's First Female Firefighters," Seattle TImes, January 11, 1999, retrieved at http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19990111&slug=2938139l
Caption information source: "26 Fire Fighters Graduate," Seattle Times, July 1, 1981, p. 18
Caption information also derived from captions written by Post-Intelligencer staff and attached to the back of the photograph.