Introduction
This second collection of historical
firefighting images concentrates on the years 1940 to 1990,
five formative decades for fire protection in North Carolina's
capital county. During this time, the Raleigh Fire Department
quadrupled in size, smaller municipal departments modernized,
and rural departments organized. Raleigh's fire department was
firmly established by 1940 with five stations and 56 full-time
firemen operating five engines and two truck companies. They
were 27 years old as a "paid department" and decades
past their horse-drawn days. Outside of Raleigh, many of Wake
County's smaller towns had purchased fire equipment by 1940.
These ranged from hand-drawn hose reels to early-model pumpers.
They had fire chiefs with slim salaries and volunteers to
respond from their homes and businesses. (For their service,
the firemen received a couple dollars per call or exemptions
on certain taxes.) By the late 1940s and early 1950s, these
towns-- Apex, Cary, Fuquay Springs, Wake Forest, Wendell, and
Zebulon-- each had a brand-new, fully-equipped fire engine
with a full complement of volunteer firefighters. Wake Forest
even had a second fire company, organized in 1942 to protect
colored residents.
Beginning in the 1950s, formal fire
protection became available outside of Raleigh and those
small-town centers. A rural fire department program enabled
any group of citizens to organize a volunteer department. The
Office of Civil Defense offered funding, equipment, and a
county-wide radio network. Lower insurance rates were an added
incentive. And so they formed-- inside, outside, and entirely
removed from Wake's municipalities. Residents of Garner,
Knightdale, Morrisville, and Rolesville formed their town's
first fire companies in the 1950's. In the suburbs of Raleigh,
the New Hope, Six Forks Road, and Western Boulevard fire
departments formed in the late 1950s; the Durham Highway and
Fairgrounds fire departments forming in the early 1960s. (Who
were these volunteers? Six Forks Road members in 1958 included
a grocer, barber, detective, telephone man, lawyer, school
teacher, florist, mail carrier, heating contractor, two
mechanics, a Civil Defense official, and several State
workers.)
...continued in the book! |
