Pueblo Fire Department welcomes first black recruit

The Pueblo Fire Department’s newest class of firefighter recruits consists of six men who were selected to serve Pueblo residents based on their “experience, merit, and fitness for the position,” but it’s also making history for the department.

Terrence Fantroy-Hankins will be PFD’s first black firefighter when he completes the academy class, which started March 1. He joins Oleg Pertsov, Dustin Holman, Charlie Mengel, Tristan Calabro, and Eric Szabelski to fill out the department’s newest recruiting class.

The department was founded in 1889 but has always lacked an African-American firefighter. Two black men have served as firefighters in Pueblo, but not for the city’s department. The first was a volunteer firefighter in the 1800s and the second is Eugene Polk, who was a firefighter at the Transportation Technology Center Inc. in 1974.

Fire Chief Shawn Shelton says that fact led to him changing the department’s recruiting strategy.

“It amazes me that we haven’t been able to recruit and retain a black firefighter,” Shelton told KRDO last July. “It has been on our radar for a long time, and previous chiefs have talked about it. They struggled to find ways to achieve that diversity.”

He added that it’s not just a local issue and noted that African-American involvement in fire departments is low across the country.

Polk told us that the first time the department hires a black firefighter and they graduate, he would be at that graduation.