AN FRANCISCO - Fire Chief Robert Demmons says his department is a lot like a family business. And like any family business, he makes sure the employees reflect the family.
In the past decade, the fire department in this city has undergone a transformation, moving from a department comprised almost exclusively of white males to one that is now among the most diverse in the country.
The change is obvious at the top. Demmons is the first black chief in San Francisco's history, and one of the few blacks in the country to head up a large, urban fire department.
Unlike Boston, where minorities make up only 3 percent of the superior officers, the upper ranks of the San Francisco department are 37 percent minority.
Most remarkable is the addition of 160 women to the force of 1,525. In 1987, there were no women in the department.
Boston, by comparison, has 12 women out of a total of 1,592 firefighters.
Both Boston and San Francisco were ordered by federal courts to increase the hiring of minorities in the fire departments. Last year, after a decade of working under the court order, a judge ended all monitoring of the San Francisco Fire Department.
Boston, as it has for more than 20 years, continues to operate under a court consent decree.
Demmons has a simple answer when asked what makes his city different. ''You won't make any changes until there is a commitment at the top,'' he said. ''It takes an aggressive approach and it is very difficult.''
When Demmons was named the department's top officer two years ago, he told his chief recruiter to sign up 600 women to take the entry exam for the department. The recruiter scoffed; it was a number that far exceeed prior sign-ups. But Demmons insisted, and the recruiter made it happen.
The Demmons approach has alienated many white firefighters, who complain the aggressive hiring and promoting of women and minorities is nothing more than reverse discrimination.
''He has whitey under his thumb,'' a high-ranking white officer who declined to be named complained to a Globe reporter.
Demmons knows he is unpopular with some firefighters.
''I represent change,'' he said. Much of the resentment, he said, comes from old-timers who have a large amount of influence in the firehouse.
''They can't understand the world has changed,'' he said. ''This is not a dirt trail anymore. It's a six-lane highway.''
Firefighter Paula Gamick, a six-year veteran of the department, said the consent decree requiring the department to hire more women and minorities has ''caused a lot of dissension.''
She said newer recruits have a difficult time winning respect in the firehouse because of a perception the hiring requirements are much easier than they once were.
The most controversial change is the overhaul of the examination process for promoting officers. The process in San Francisco once resembled the current system in Boston: a multiple-choice exam based on the memorization of thousands of facts in books of regulations, codes, and firefighting techniques.
But following a national trend, San Francisco developed a new testing system that includes a section where candidates are asked to explain how they would respond to different kinds of fires or handle a personnel situation at a firehouse.
''A written exam can't adequately test for supervisory skills,'' Demmons said. ''One of the things the federal judge said was the problem with the San Francisco Fire Department is not the practice of racism and sexism. That was a problem, but the primary problem is a lack of sound management practice.''
Demmons believes the new exam process selects better managers, who still have to be skilled in firefighting, but who are better able to deal with the problems that arise supervising people.
The department also picks officers who fall within a range of scores. The so-called banding of scores was recommended by a testing expert who said a person's score would fluctuate within a certain range no matter how many times he or she took the test.
Demmons said there are many benefits to having a department that looks like the residents of a city. He was particularly struck by what happened when he spoke at a school with a female firefighter.
''This little girl sprung up and said, `Wow, a woman firefighter.' Her eyes were this big,'' he said holding his hands three feet apart. ''It blew me away. What does this mean to that little girl? It means she can be a firefighter too.''
San Francisco Fire Chief Robert Demmons. (AP)
