Raleigh Retrospective – 2006 to 2019

The city of Raleigh has been served by sixteen career Fire Chiefs since 1912. And effective [tomorrow, November 1, 2019], Fire Chief John T. McGrath has retired. That’s a historical milestone, as he’s the city’s second-longest serving fire chief, with 13.8 years of service. Only Chief Keeter (1955 to 1973) had a longer tenure, with …

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Greensboro’s 1904 American LaFrance Steam Engine #496

Here’s a history of American LaFrance steam engine #496, built in 1904 for Greensboro, NC, and later owned by private collectors in North Carolina and Florida, and finally residing at Cedar Point Amusement Park in Ohio. The restored steamer is being auction. This text and these images were copied from the auction listing.  “Built for …

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Run Card for Plane Crash at Umstead Park

See photos from Sunday and Monday at legeros.smugmug.com/Fire-Photos/2019/2019-10-umstead-crash Here’s a run card for Sunday night’s aircraft incident, after radar contact was lost with a small plane on approach to Runway 32 at Raleigh-Durham International Airport. That’s the smallest of the airport’s three runways, and perpendicular to the main runway. The tower notified crash-fire-rescue and airport …

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The “Hooks” of a Hook & Ladder

What did the “hooks” look like on the original hook and ladder trucks? Master historian Matt Lee included this picture in his 1997 book “A Pictorial History of the Fire Engine – Volume I.”[1] It’s one of the best pictures and explanations that I’ve come across. Note that there are two of them, a curved …

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Airport Orders Pierce Pumper – Update October 2019

October 10, 2019 Here’s a factory photo of the completed truck, as posted on this Pierce Flickr page: October 30, 2018 News from Raleigh-Durham International Airport. They’ve ordered a Freightliner/Pierce pumper to replace CFR 1, a 2005 Ford F-550/4 Guys mini-pumper, 500/250/20. And it’s the first full-size pumper in the airport’s history.[1]

Factory Photos of Cary’s Tillers

Here are factory photos of Cary’s twin tillers, a pair of 2019 Pierce Enforcer Ascendant 1500/200/107′ tractor-drawn aerials. New Ladder 1 and Ladder 3. Source is the Pierce Flickr page. Go there for larger versions. These are the town’s first tillers, and bump the Wake County TDA total to seven. Raleigh has four, Cary with …

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