Black History Month spotlight—Regina Jenkins

February 2, 2024

St. Andrews Fire Department Captain Regina Jenkins didn’t grow up wanting to be a firefighter.

She knew she enjoyed helping people and, when she was in her early 20s, she knew she hated her job. When her sister’s best friend, a dispatcher, encouraged her to apply, she agreed. Regina was a dispatcher for 4 years prior to joining the fire department.

But the leap from dispatch to fire can be intimidating. Regina took inventory of the people on the floor at the station and thought to herself, “If they can do it, I’m pretty sure I can do it.”

She can still recall details from her first fire almost 17 years ago – two trailers with a house built around it.

“As I’m crawling, I’m thinking, ‘Is this really what I wanna do for the rest of my life?’” Regina remembers. “The transition [from dispatch] was rough.”

But time moves forward and after the first fire comes the second fire. This time, though, was a bit more personal.

“My best friend’s father was a fireman at my department and was one of the ones who encouraged me to become a firefighter. It was his cousin, and he actually recognized me from when I was young,” she noted. Something clicked for her then.

“Fire is quick, it’s nasty, it’s disrespectful, and it takes out everything, but to know that you’re actually the one person when they call when they’re having a bad day and you’re at least able to fix it a little bit, that’s rewarding in itself,” Regina said.

As the fire service evolves, firefighters find themselves responding to more and more medical calls. When Regina and her crew responded to an elderly Black woman having a panic attack, Regina’s presence had a significant impact on the patient.

“I walked in there last and started talking to her, making her laugh. Everything smoothed out and she kinda relaxed… She saw me, and everything was ok,” Regina recalled.

Regina is the only Black woman on her department. When it came time for promotions, she studied tirelessly. To this day, she’s the first and only person she knows who’s scored a 96 on the Captain’s test at her department.

“Everyone who knows me and who’s been there in this journey with me knows I work hard for it… I’ve worked hard for every position that I’ve gotten,” she said.

As a Black woman, Regina knows how important it is to teach the next generation about Black history. Representation matters, and when kids see her as a firefighter, they know they can do it, too.

“Don’t get me wrong, running into fires is crazy,” Regina laughed, “But for kids who wanna do it, they can know that people who look like them have done it before.”