After 33 years with the Mobile Fire-Rescue Department — and a career full of firsts — District Chief LeAnn Tacon got a parade.
Fire trucks, police cruisers and county EMS units rolled through downtown Mobile on Wednesday morning, joined by city and county leaders, to honor Tacon on the eve of her retirement after more than three decades of service.
A Career of Firsts
Tacon broke barriers from the day she joined the department in 1988 as its first female firefighter. She went on to become the department’s first female captain and later its first female district chief, overseeing the EMS division’s administrative operations at Central Fire Station.
That division handles medical reporting, licensing for department personnel and controlled-drug inventory, and coordinates medical coverage for more than 300 special events across the city each year — including Mardi Gras, college football and baseball games, the Azalea Trail Run and the Greater Gulf State Fair.
Mobile Fire-Rescue has served as the city’s lead EMS agency since 1975 and added ambulance transport capability in 1991, providing both basic and advanced life support throughout Mobile.