Aubrey D. Jenkins began his duties as the fire chief of the Columbia-Richland Fire Department on July 20, 2011, serving as the first African American appointed to this position. Additionally he has served as the first African American to be elected as the President of the South Carolina State Association of Fire Chiefs.
The Columbia-Richland Fire Department serves Columbia, the capital of South Carolina, as well as a 660 square-mile area of Richland County. Prior to serving as fire chief, Chief Jenkins worked his way up through the ranks of the department as a firefighter from 1979 to 1982, a relief fire equipment operator from 1982 to 1984, fire equipment operator from 1984 to 1988, fire captain from 1988 to 1993, battalion chief from 1993 to 2005, and deputy chief from 2005 to 2011. He currently leads around 600 employees that serve our citizens out of 32 fire stations.
Chief Jenkins is a graduate of Eau Claire High School, the South Carolina Executive Institute and he received his undergraduate degree from Columbia Southern University in fire science. He is the co-chairman of the City of Columbia Grievance Committee, and is certified as an Emergency Medical Responder (EMR) instructor, a South Carolina Fire Academy instructor, and an American Red Cross first aid instructor.
As a fire chief, he has received a variety of honors and awards. He was an inductee of the Columbia Housing Authority Wall of Fame. He was made the honorary chair for the 2015 Walk Like MADD event and was also named the 2025 Walk Ambassador for the Columbia Sickle Cell Walk.
He has received the Volunteer of the Year Award, Citizen of the Year Award, and Recognition Award for Participation in after school programs to teach first aid and safety to youth and mentoring programs. His additional honors include being named Columbia Firefighter of the Year, City of Columbia Employee of the Month, being presented with a Life Saver Award from the City of Columbia for rescuing a baby from a burning structure. He was also a 2007 recipient of the Columbia Urban League’s Lincoln C. Jenkins Jr. Award, as well as a 2025 recipient of the Urban League’s Presidents Award.
Under the advisement of Chief Jenkins, CRFD partnered with the Urban League to create a Summer Youth Empowerment Academy. Roughly 50 teens in the Columbia area have taken part in this summer program at the fire department since it began in 2022.
Also under the direction of Chief Jenkins, CRFD has also collected and distributed food each holiday season to assist hundreds of struggling families in our region through the ‘Firefighters Feeding Families Holiday Food Drive.’
Among his most significant accomplishment is achieving a class 1 ISO rating for the city’s fire service. It is the highest rating for local fire protection efforts based on ISO’s fire suppression rating schedule. He is the first and only fire chief in the department’s history to achieve this milestone.
Chief Jenkins is a member of Progressive Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ in Columbia where he serves as a deacon and past chairman of the brotherhood department. He is married to Vernell Trapp Jenkins and they have two adult sons, Emanuel and Sheldon.
