Raleigh Fire Facility Updates – Summer 2019

What’s happening with the city’s fire department construction projects? Here’s your summer update…  Station 6  – Construction continues on rebuilding Station 6 on Fairview Road. Concrete masonry unit walls are finished on the first story, and construction continues upward with the second-floor slab placed. Planned completion January 2020. The 1949 engine house was closed in …

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Seagrave Painter’s Log – 1906 to 1951

https://www.legeros.com/history/library Added my digital history library. Have had for a couple years. Bought on eBay. List originally saved by Eric A. Sprenger (“Mr. Seagrave”), then shared by Ken Soderbeck. Original date unknown. Scan of second-generation (or more) photocopy. Close as we’ll get to a Seagrave delivery list, I guess. How many were delivered to North …

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New Bern Firefighter Dies From Injuries After Apparatus Accident – 1963

Found another firefighter fatality of yore, from an account in Daniel Bartholf’s new book “History of Firefighter in New Bern, North Carolina.” Here’s the story, from the book and newspaper accounts, copied from the state library in downtown Raleigh. On February 26, 1951, a New Bern Fire Department engine overturned while en route to a …

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New Book on New Bern Fire History

New book alert! History of Firefighting in New Bern, North Carolina – Colonial Days to the 21st Century has been published. The author is Daniel Bartholf, a 45-year veteran of the volunteer fire service (NY, NC, WV) and a member of the staff at the New Bern Firemen’s Museum. His bio is below. The softcover …

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Wake Forest Engine Returns Home

Antique acquisition alert!  The Wake Forest Fire Department has re-acquired their old 1947 Chevrolet 6000/Southern pumper[1].  It was delivered in 1948, and replaced a 1934 Chevrolet pumper, which was given to the town’s second fire department, Wake Forest Fire Department #2. They were an all-black department, that operated separately from WFFD. And were one of …

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New Source of Digitized Conference Proceedings

There’s a new source of digitized proceedings of the early conferences of the North Carolina State Firemen’s Association. The Internet Archive (archive.org) has digitized a portion of the proceedings in the North Carolina Collection at the University of North Carolina. The direct links are listed below, and each year’s proceedings is fully-searchable. There are also …

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Handbook of Civilian Defense – 1942

New addition to the Legeros history library, the Handbook of Civilian Defense – What every loyal American can do to help the United States win the war. By Lt. Robert H. Rankin, St. John’s Military Academy and published 1942. https://legeros.com/history/library Scanned from copy in personal collection. Wee hardcover with 95 pages. Includes such “keys to …

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Plane Strikes Fire Truck While Taking Off – Charlotte, 1977

Here’s an usual apparatus accident, reported by the Charlotte Observer on Saturday, April 9, 1977. Douglas Municipal Airport on Friday night, April 8. Piece of fire apparatus with three aboard. They were returning to the station, after doing some pre-planning of a DC-10 that had made a rare landing at the airport. The FFs radioed …

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Running Across America for Firefighter Cancer

Meet Matty Gregg, pictured below (center left) at Raleigh Fire Station 2 yesterday. He’s running across America for the Firefighter Cancer Support Network. For seven months and nearly 4,500 miles, he’s been spreading the word about firefighter cancer and the national support group.  The Firefighter Cancer Support Network is active in 35 states and growing. …

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