S.F. Fire Department official demoted after crash

SF Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White said of Kyle Merkins' demotion. "I felt the department did its due diligence in arriving at the decision to return him to his position as lieutenant." SF Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White said of Kyle Merkins' demotion. "I felt the department did its due diligence in arriving at the decision to return him to his position as lieutenant." Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close S.F. Fire Department official demoted after crash 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

The San Francisco Fire Department's head of homeland security and special operations has been stripped of his post after an incident this year in which a motorist complained that the official's department-issued sedan bumped into his car and that its driver turned on his emergency lights and drove away through a red light.

Kyle Merkins, a 24-year veteran, was an assistant deputy chief for two years, until the Fire Department demoted him to his previous rank of lieutenant and assigned him to the city's fire boat last month, department officials said.

Merkins, 46, had been in charge of the Fire Department's preparedness to respond to a terrorist attack, a position that involves coordinating efforts to obtain more resources and work with other agencies. Efforts to reach him were unsuccessful.

"I made the decision to return him to his permanent civil-service rank," Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White said of Merkins' demotion. "I felt the department did its due diligence in arriving at the decision to return him to his position as lieutenant."

Department officials did not give a reason for Merkins' demotion, citing personnel confidentiality. But it happened after investigators looked into an incident in Sonoma that involved his department-issued car.

The red Ford Taurus was involved in a minor collision with a 2001 Audi on South Broadway around 2 p.m. on March 2, a Sunday when Merkins, a Sonoma resident, was off-duty. The driver of the Taurus drove away without stopping, said Sonoma Police Chief Bret Sackett.

"He clipped my bumper - he jostled me pretty good," said the Audi driver, Josh Eldridge, 40, a film and television location manager who lives in Sonoma. "He never got out - the funny thing, the damage was so minor, if he would have stopped and talked to me, I would have said, 'See you later, have a nice day.'

"He should have stopped, but then he drove off and he ran away from me," Eldridge said. "I didn't know there was very minor damage. I gave chase until he got to a stop light - that's when he flipped on his lights and blew through the light."

The local Fire Department has no such red Taurus sedan, but Sonoma authorities knew of one in town that was owned by the San Francisco Fire Department, Sackett said.

Without any injury or damage, the incident did not qualify as an accident under the law, so police did not open a criminal investigation, Sackett said. Instead, officers told Eldridge to call San Francisco himself.

Eldridge did so, filing a report with the Fire Department the afternoon of the collision.

The next day, Sackett said, San Francisco fire officials asked Sonoma police to go to Merkins' home and check on the department's car.

"I don't believe he was home at the time, (but) we noticed there was no damage to the vehicle," the police chief said. The officers then prepared an informational report. "No other action was taken," Sackett said.

A few days later, two San Francisco Fire Department investigators went to Eldridge's home to interview him. They said they would get back to him, but never did, Eldridge said.

"I felt betrayed by a public servant, if they use their light to get away from you," Eldridge said. "I'm just happy to see something was done about it."