First Female Fire Chief for city of Decatur.

Toni Tolbert Dixon will be the city’s first black and first female fire chief

By DONNA WILLIAMS LEWIS

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Thursday, January 08, 2009

Toni Tolbert Dixon, former deputy fire chief in East Point, has become the first black and first female fire chief of the city of Decatur.

Dixon, 40, will work alongside current fire chief Jerry Malone for the next six months. Malone plans to retire in July after 30 years of service.
Dixon leaves a department of 139 firefighters to lead a department of 40. There is one fire station in downtown Decatur and another under construction in the city’s Oakhurst neighborhood, she said.

Dixon said she plans to focus on professionalism and customer service.

“We want to be a fire department where you don’t just see us in an emergency,” she said.

The married mother of four lives in South Fulton. She got her start in the firefighting field in 1992 as a fire safety technician in the state Fire Marshal’s Office.F