Ray Brooks currently serves as the president of the Black Chief Officers Committee of the International Association of Black Professional Fire Fighters. He began his firefighting career in 1969 in Michigan City, Ind., and rose to the position of fire chief in 1979. Over the next 25 years, Brooks served as fire chief in Evanston, Ill.; Alhambra and San Jose, Calif.; Birmingham, Ala.; and recently retired from Compton, Calif.

How did the Black Chief Officers Committee become affiliated with the International Association of Black Professional Fire Fighters?

Most of the black chiefs come through the ranks of the IABPFF. They've been members at one time or another [but] there was always the concern that chiefs may leave the circle.… For chiefs to assure the membership of the IABPFF that we would be a part of them, we became a committee of that structure. The purpose of that committee is to serve as a conduit for part of that training, upward mobility, teaching and fostering within the ranks of the International for those who wish to become fire service administrators, and that's how we began.…

[In 1992] I broadened the organization with liaisons to Women in the Fire Service, adding a marketing person for our group, a governmental liaison for our group. We are very involved in the Congressional Fire Service Institute's dinner and share a table with the IABPFF. We believe this is a partnership, henceforth and forever, in trying to show a united front of professionalism and conduct throughout this nation's fire service. We're working hard as leaders to set the tone and need to have something to point to, and our annual conference points to that.

Your annual meetings really reflect the goals you have for the BCOC.

We have tried to take the leadership role and establish some steps in which an individual should behave if they are interested in being a fire service administrator. We believe the organization should always represent the best interest of the service, but also the best interest of the people it serves.

The BCOC obviously values continuing to be a part of the IAPBFF compared to other chiefs' associations that distance their origins.

Good, bad or indifferent, there has been a mindset of reasons that once an individual becomes a chief, it sort of puts him or her in a quagmire. Some people have not really addressed that question or responded, some have chosen to withdraw or maybe not be as much a visible participant.

My position has been that I joined the IABPFF because that's what I am. I am a black professional. I rose through the ranks and became a fire chief for about 25 years. I always wanted to make sure that I gave back not only to the service, the community, but to the race that I represented. A lot of people think that's a separate statement, but I don't intend it to be one.

You've seen a lot of changes in your 35 years.

Tremendous changes.… One of the critical points for me as a black professional was that the largest number of fire fatalities in this nation happens in the community that I came from — the black community. Where we used to put those numbers out, [now] we just talk about the overall rate of fatalities. For you to get the word out on public safety to the community that's having the largest number of problems, education is important. You must be cognizant of the people you are sending there to educate. Sometimes the people you are sending there to educate may not be getting the point across to the audience that they should.

When you look across America for the past 10 or 25 years, our involvement has changed the face of the American fire service. Members of our organization served as chiefs of Hartford, Conn.; Seattle; San Diego; San Jose, Calif.; and Orlando, Fla. It wasn't like we weren't serving in communities of significant size and reputation. We believe our credibility was recognized in the profession. We know it took time to get there, whatever the mindset was. We decided as a BCOC that we were not going to bog down in debate and conflict. We would participate as active professionals who had achieved the highest level you could go in the fire service. We began to focus on the things that we felt were important to build a solidified foundation to grow from and develop partnerships with all of those entities in the fire service that we could up to and any that we had an adversarial role with.

Where is the future of the BCOC?

I have enjoyed the working relationship that this committee has had with the IAFC. That doesn't mean we haven't had differences, but I've explained our side, and they've explained theirs. We have had a meaningful, working relationship.… We have had the opportunity to sit with members of the United Kingdom fire department of color.… We've also had an opportunity to talk with members of the Ghana fire service. We have tried to reach out and behave as international representatives.