Minneapolis’ female fire chief faces allegations

An impressive career
In an interview, Lemon said she was optimistic at first to see a female and a lesbian appointed chief.

“But it is disheartening to know that we don’t get better, we don’t learn,” she said. “Even after we’ve gone through hardships, that we can turn around and perpetrate the same behavior ... it’s a sad thing.”

In 1989, Bleskachek became the 10th woman to join the Minneapolis department, which had hired its first female firefighter just three years earlier. She co-founded a group that helps women train for the firefighting test, and she helped get the city to change one part of the grueling physical test so it more accurately reflected the tasks required on the job.

As of March, 17 percent of the city’s 450 firefighters were women — the highest percentage among urban fire departments in the nation, according to Women in the Fire Service.

“She put a lot of time and effort into making this a job that’s available for women,” said Tom Thornberg, president of the Minneapolis firefighters union.

Bleskachek was appointed chief in 2004 by Mayor R.T. Rybak. Rybak’s spokesman said the mayor had no comment on the dispute.

'Frightening' implications for women
Burg said Bleskachek did her job well and worked to change the perception of a firehouse as a boys’ club. He said the allegations are “a terrible negative.”

“I think it feeds into the bias that lesbians are masculine and men behave like pigs, therefore lesbians are pigs,” the lawyer said. “The implications of this for women, I think that they are frightening.”

Thornberg, the union president, said morale among the rank-and-file is pretty good, considering the publicity surrounding the chief.

“When it gets into the press, the picture is painted that everyone is in the firehouse having sex and doing all of these things. Well, that’s not the case,” he said.

“We’re all professionals. We’re trained to do our job. ... Everybody would just like to see this over so that we can move on, and get our good name back and continue to do what we do.”

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