BY St. Louis Post-Dispatch

New Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson is, in many ways, the mirror image of his predecessor.

Sherman George rose through the ranks despite institutional barriers, becoming the first African-American to lead the department.

Jenkerson had no such obstacles — he comes from a family of firefighters, even skipping a rank to become chief.

But Jenkerson and George do share at least one thing in common: controversy. George on the way out, and Jenkerson on the way in. Advertisement

Appointed Monday, Jenkerson has inherited a department beset by turmoil. The racial tension has bled into a meandering police investigation, the scope of which has widened to include an episode from Jenkerson's own past.

Jenkerson dismisses the incident as politics as usual, part of a tit-for-tat firehouse culture he grew up in — and now has been tasked to change.

"It's been there for years. It's nothing new," Jenkerson said. "To say it's a black-and-white issue isn't right — it's a Fire Department issue."

Jenkerson, 50, is a firefighter's firefighter, accustomed to the ebb and flow of the craft. Long nights at the station were relieved by fishing trips with the guys. Jenkerson's grandfather Richard Marshall was a battalion chief whose lungs were seared in a basement fire in 1963; he died a few weeks later.

Jenkerson's father, George, was a department officer who himself narrowly missed promotion to the top spot. He scored highest on the chief's test but was passed over for Neil Svetanics, who retired in 1999.

History did not repeat itself. Dennis Jenkerson, too, was the No. 1 scorer on the chief's test, allowing him to edge out Fire Marshal Charles Coyle — an African-American who has more experience and, as a deputy chief, a higher rank. RELATED LINK
New chief already is facing racial fires

George Jenkerson was one of more than a dozen family members who came to City Hall this week to hear his son introduced as the new chief.

"Somebody asked me how come I wasn't crying," said George Jenkerson, 71. "I said, 'I'm grinning from ear to ear.'"

Chief Jenkerson is slender, with dark hair and a trim mustache. As a firefighter, he prefers the strategy of the rescue to the glory of running into a burning a building.

He's heavily involved with tonight's "Guns 'N Hoses" event — the annual boxing tournament between firefighters and police officers — but as an administrator, not a fighter.

Jenkerson describes himself as a tactician who will get his hands dirty — a quarterback who's not afraid to throw a block.

For the past several years, Jenkerson has been based at Engine House No. 28, one of the most hectic firehouses in the state. Its motto? "Sleep when you're dead," Jenkerson said.

Jenkerson went to Missouri Southern State University to play soccer but dropped out to marry his high school sweetheart, Michelle. He joined the Fire Department at age 21 and later, when he saw the opportunity for advancement, enrolled in St. Louis University to get a degree in organizational science.

Jenkerson is at ease mingling with politicos and public employees. He has advised U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan, has a brother who's a city cop and a sister who is a teacher. But critics say that coziness has led to "croynism."

The organization of black firefighters — still angry over Sherman George's Oct. 1 ouster for refusing to end a hold on promotions — has condemned Jenkerson's elevation as a "sad day" in St. Louis.

They have seized on an incident from about six years ago, when a crew of firefighters led by Jenkerson cut down a diving-board platform at the home in the Central West End of Lou Hamilton, a well-connected City Hall lobbyist whose clients include the Cardinals and Anheuser-Busch.

Jenkerson says the job was a training drill to teach firefighters how to use a heavy-duty torch. Hamilton says he barely remembers the incident — except that he was left with a hole in his yard and a hunk of metal in his garage.

"They said thank you for letting us do this," Hamilton recalled. "And they picked up their tools and left."

Firefighters did not get "so much as a glass of iced tea" in return, Hamilton said.

Even so, the mayor's office has forwarded the incident to police, part of an inquiry that began with an anonymous tip that fire academy recruits were used to do work on private property owned by a superior. Since then, 25 firefighters have been contacted for police interviews, city officials said.

"We've had white firefighters accuse black firefighters. We've have black firefighters accuse white firefighters," said Slay's chief of staff, Jeff Rainford. "We're just sending it all over" to the Police Department.

The mayor is not investing much merit in the allegations against Jenkerson. Asked Monday whether he was concerned about having a chief at least tangentially involved in a criminal investigation, Slay replied curtly, "Obviously not."

On Tuesday, Jenkerson spent his second day in office fielding interviews and far-flung congratulations, including one from an old soccer buddy. Despite the busy agenda, Jenkerson made time for a lunch date with a special guest who knows the new stripes don't mean much at home.

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