The Keeper of Raleigh’s Fire History – News & Observer Profile

Yours Truly was profiled in Sunday’s News & Observer, as a Tar Heel of the Week in a story by Marti Maguire. Excellent piece about my passion for the fire service, the many hats that I wear, and the path that led me to this hysterical, historical place.  Read the article[*], which is reprinted below. …

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Five Alarms in Downtown Raleigh – Moved to New Site

March 26 This posting and its content has been moved to a dedicated page on the Raleigh Fire Museum web site. Head over to www.raleighfiremuseum.org/content/metropolitan. March 22 WNCN news links added, more suppression details, incident notes formatted, canteen service added, need to add to diagram “A/B/C/D explanation.” March 21 Added more news links, more damage …

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Wake County Fire Commission Meeting – March 16, 2017

A regular meeting of the Wake County Fire Commission will be held on Thursday, March 16, 2017. The location is the Wake County Emergency Service Education Center, 221 South Rogers Lane. They’ll be in Suite 160, the large conference room. The meeting starts at 7:00 p.m. Agenda is below. View the meeting documents. Meeting Called to …

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Architect Selected for New Raleigh Fire Headquarters and Central Fire Station

On February 21, 2017, the City Council selected Davis Kane Architects to provide professional services for the fire department’s new Headquarters and Fire Station 1. Note the recently published minutes (PDF), they’ll provide “architectural; engineering and other design services; environmental and surveying services; cost estimating and construction related services in anticipation of relocating Fire Station One …

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Town of Smithfield Buying Building For Second Fire Station

The town of Smithfield this week announced the planned purchase of the former Johnston Ambulance Service at 1200 Highway 70 Business, as a location for a second fire station. The 6,450 square-foot building was erected in 2007. The ambulance company ceased operations in August 2016. Here’s a Google Maps street view picture of the structure: …

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Wake County Civil Defense Siren Snapshot – September 1972

Found a neat snapshot of the county Civil Defense siren system, from September 1972. Source is an unidentified newspaper article dated September 9, 1982. Likely the Fuquay-Varina Independent.  The story is about the Fuquay-Varina Rural Fire Department having recently purchased and installed a new ten-horsepower emergency warning siren. It was purchased with the aid of the …

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Production Starts on Raleigh’s Third Tiller and Two Engines

Pierce Manufacturing has started production on the Raleigh Fire Department’s third (!) tiller, as well as two new engines: Job #30630 is a Pierce Arrow XT tiller, 1500/200/100′. Similar to Ladder 9, which was delivered in 2015. The other tiller is Ladder 4, a 2010 Pierce Arrow XT. Job #30631-1 and #30631-2 are a pair …

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Garner Orders Rosenbauer Pumper-Tanker

From this Facebook posting by C.W. Williams, Garner Fire Rescue has ordered a Rosenbauer customer-chassis top-mount pumper-tanker, 1250/1000. Rosenbauer won the bid for county-funded engines and tankers, for Fy17 and FY18. Four engines (DHFD, EWFD, FFD, WNHFD) and three custom-chassis tankers (FVFD x2, WFFD) were planned for purchase. See comments in this blog posting from September. Believe …

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Wake County Fire Service – Staffing & Deployment Study Presentation

Change log will go here, as this posting is edited with any corrections or clarifications. What does our county-funded fire service need, both now and going forward? That’s a question that Wake County Fire Services and the Wake County Fire Commission have been trying to answer for some years now. Strategic Planning Starts – 2013 …

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