Snoqualmie’s fire department welcomed a new member to the team last week with the hiring of Theresa Tozier.

A firefighter and EMT, Tozier is the department’s first female career firefighter. She started at the Snoqualmie Fire Department on Jan. 17, and will be recognized at an official badge pinning ceremony Monday, Feb. 13, at a Snoqualmie City Council meeting.

Tozier was hired into the new firefighter position created by Snoqualmie’s Proposition 1 public safety levy, approved by voters last November. Previously a part-time firefighter with Lake Stevens Fire and Granite Falls Fire, Tozier is a graduate of the Everett College EMT Training and Fire Academy; she later returned to the school as a mentor for other students.

Snoqualmie Fire Chief Mark Correira said Tozier was chosen from more than 50 applicants who qualified.

“She mastered some of the fire-fighting skills, and when we did the final interview, she really hit it out of the park. She got the direction we are taking the organization,” he said.

In her first few months, Tozier will be learning the department policies and undergo training with the department’s equipment, including learning to drive the fire engine.

Correira said the addition of Tozier to the fire department has increased the total firefighters on staff and allows them to meet the regional staffing standards for their 24-hour shifts.

“It brings our numbers up to 12, which allows us to have four people out on (24-hour) shift, allows our minimum staffing to be at three, which is a huge milestone for us, something the city has been trying to do for many years now,” he said. “We can meet the requirements in the state law.”

Before the addition of a firefighter position, Correira said, “If a house was on fire, we couldn’t go into that building. Now we can actually do that.”