Leonard Judge; Boyhood dream of wailing sirens
Published on February 23rd, 2008 - Warren Wise of the Post and Courier

Boyhood dream of wailing sirens, blazes to battle culminates as N. Charleston's first black fire chief As a child, Leonard Judge would watch big red firetrucks zip through his Montague Avenue neighborhood, sirens wailing, as they made their way from their station in the Olde Village to a call for help.

At the tender age of 9, when he wasn't cutting wood or shining shoes to make a few dollars, he would imagine himself driving the oversized Tonka toys to help put out a fire somewhere.

Judge instinctively knew what he wanted to do with his life when he grew up. "In my wildest dreams, I never thought I would become a firefighter," he said.

Today, he is chief of the fire department in North Charleston, the third-largest city in the state, where he oversees a $14 million budget and 214 full-time firefighters.

"I never really wanted to do anything else," Judge said, adding that one time he thought about becoming a highway patrolman, as state troopers were once called, but thought it was difficult for a black man to get one of those jobs in the early 1970s.

He has no regrets. "This is my dream job," he said. "If I had to do it over again, I don't think I would accept a job doing anything else." Getting started Three years out of high school and married to his high school sweetheart, Naomi, Judge had a 2-month-old daughter when he was laid off from his job on the production line at the old Claussen's Bakery off Rivers Avenue.

Out of work for four months, he applied for a job at the North Charleston Fire Department, hoping he would get the job he had always dreamed of, but not really counting on it.

One Sunday, he was called into the department for an interview. He didn't have a car, so he rode his bike from Ben Tillman Homes to the city's headquarters station on Jenkins Avenue. The interview went well, so they scheduled a physical for the next day. Physical results in hand, Fire Chief William New, now deceased, told him to report for work the next day.

"That had to be the happiest day of my life," he said. " I was on Cloud Nine. When he told me I could come in the next day and start, I was upset that I couldn't come to work that day."

On the job As a young boy, Judge imagined himself behind the wheel of the big truck racing to a fire. "I thought the first person who got to the seat drove the truck," he said. "Boy, did I learn fast." Judge set a personal goal of being the driver.

He studied firefighting materials and driving manuals and within 11 months was promoted to engineer. "Now, I could drive the truck," he said. He didn't set another goal. "I applied myself, and other positions came open," Judge said.

He served four years at the main fire station, taking the bus to work, before moving on to firehouses on Remount Road and near Northwoods Mall.

Judge was promoted to captain in the late 1970s and became an administrative captain in 1987, shortly after risking his life to fight one of the biggest fires in the metro area. It was Judge's scariest moment as a firefighter. In June 1987, lightning struck a massive holding tank at the Hess oil terminal beside the Cooper River, eventually igniting 2.5 million gallons of gasoline.

Judge and others raced to the scene, climbed up the side of the tank and down onto a floating lid to try to contain the blaze. "You could see black smoke. I didn't see a lot of flame," he said. "When we got to the top, it was not a big deal. It was burning in one little area. We think it was a little rubber seal that was on fire."

Meanwhile, down below, a firetruck shot foam onto the blaze and it was working for the most part, but then the foam ran out. With only water to fight the fire, the foam broke up rapidly and fire sprang up all around the lid that Judge and others were standing on. "If I was ever scared, that would have been the time," he said.

Firefighters scrambled to get out, some pulling others up from inside the tank to a spiral set of steps on the outside. "After we came down, that was it," Judge said. "All you could see was fire." The decision was made to let the blaze burn itself out while firefighters concentrated on trying to protect nearby tanks from igniting.

No one was seriously injured, though several firefighters were treated for heat exhaustion and radiant heat exposure. Two years later, Judge earned the distinction of becoming the city's first black battalion chief.

In 1992, he was named assistant chief and held that position until longtime Chief Al Rissanen retired in 2005. Judge was named acting chief for about six months until Larry Waddle was hired in December 2005 to command the fire department.

Ten months later, Judge was named acting chief again after Waddle and the city parted company amid allegations of racist promotion practices and a management style that didn't sit well with the mayor.

Judge planned to retire this year, but Mayor Keith Summey asked him to stay on another year. In December, Judge made history by becoming the city's first black fire chief.

Looking back and ahead The color of a person's skin has nothing to do with being a firefighter, Judge said. "It's got to be in your blood. You can't do it because your father did it," he said. "You have to have a love in your heart."

He plans to present a five-year fire department expansion plan to North Charleston City Council this year, and hopes his successor will not extinguish the effort because the city needs to update its firefighting capability to keep up with a growing population, which is approaching 90,000.

When he retires, Judge plans to take a long-awaited Tahitian vacation and spend time fixing up a couple of houses he owns. "I'm doing the job that I always wanted to do," he said. "It's time to pass it on to someone else who loves it just as much."