Firefifighter’s dedication elevated her
Sole black female at Boynton agency now a deputy chief.
BOYNTON BEACH — More than a decade has passed s i n c e J a k e K i n g a l m o s t drowned in his grandparents’ pool on Christmas Day. Doctors at Bethesda Hospital warned his family not to get their hopes up.
Jake was 3 then. He’s 16 now. And healthy.
Ever since the near-drowning, Jake’s family has stayed in touch with the police and paramedic s who hel ped save his life. One of them i s L atosha Clemons, and when Jake’s grandmother, Valerie Edwards, heard Clemons recently was promoted to deputy chief of the fire department, she sent the fifirefifighter praise and support. She said she’s been amazed at Clemons’ career climb.
Edwards also shared a moment that shows a lit- tle bit of who the new deputy chief is.
After the accident, Jake’s family was at a fifire station, and Clemons brought them to her locker. There, hanging inside, she showed them a picture of Jake.
“I bet you she still has it,” Edwards told The Palm Beach Post on Wednesday. “I guess it keeps her centered; this is what we do it for.” Clemons does still have it. She no longer has a locker. But she took Jake’s picture along every step up she has made within the department.
“I will never get rid of it,” Clemons said. “It’s gratifying to know that you’re from this community and there was a kid that was saved due to this team’s efffffffffffforts and you had something to do with that. There’s nothing more rewarding than having a part in saving a kid.”
Clemons, a 43-year-old Boynton Beach native, says she is humbled and excited about her promotion, which took effffffffffffect Dec. 5. She is deputy chief of administration in charge of discipline, training and professional development.
Deputy Chief Greg Hoggatt is in charge of operations. The two report to Chief Glenn Joseph.
Joseph said he has known Clemons since she started training at South Technical Education Center. He was one of her instructors.
“Ev e n b a c k t h e n , s h e demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to working hard to achieve excellence in whatever tasks she was given,” he said.
Clemons, the only black woman at the fire department, started in 1996. Colleagues say no one is more deserving of the promotion.
“This is such a difffffffffffferent department from when we got hi re d i n 1 996. There we r e n’ t a l o t o f wo men working; we had a few, but not a lot. So it was always a little tougher in my opinion for any woman in this business,” Capt. Mark Henkle said. “She knows everybody. The community, just, they respect her. They care about her.”
Clemons has a hard time giving herself c redit . I t ’s one of the many lessons she learned from her grandfather, the late Cicero Clemons.
“Everything I attain, I work for. My grandfather always told me ‘Latosha, no one’s going to give you nothing, you have to work for it.’ So, I keep that,” Clemons said. “And when you work for something, it’s not necessarily that you don’t owe certain folks — you do because there are folks that paved the way to get you here. But when you’ve worked for it, and you’ve earned it, you don’t have to brag about anything.”