Archive of entries posted on December 2022

Raleigh Fire Department Recruit Academy 48 Graduation

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The Raleigh Fire Department’s largest recruit class ever graduated last night, on Wednesday, December 29, 2022. The ceremony was conducted at the Raleigh Convention Center, with retiring Division Chief of Professional Development David Whitley giving the keynote address. Three awards were given out, recognizing Joseph Harris as Valedictorian, Chase Johnson as Lt. Herman “Greg” Ellis, …

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Wake County’s First Rural Fire Truck

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Morning history. Random find. The first “rural truck” in Wake County history. Built by members of the Apex Fire Department in 1952, to expand service to “rural residents,” e.g. those that lived outside of the town limits. News & Observer photos from May (top) and August (bottom) 1952, scanned from film prints.  Reported the paper …

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Cigarette Carried to Attic By Pigeon and Other Unusual Fire Causes

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Updated December 2022 with content from archive blog postings, replacing links to pages no longer available. Back in 2009, we published a series of blog postings, listing vintage fire cause reports from around North Carolina from the late 1940s through the late 1950s, as (a.) reported to the State Insurance Commissioner’s office, (b.) compiled by …

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Visual History of Durham Fire Department

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Updated on December 11, 2022. Chart has been pushed to production, version 1.0.  Here’s a draft of a Durham fire history chart, created in early 2020 during a run on DFD research. Let’s revisit and push the thing to production, shall we? View as JPG | View as PDF | Or via this Google Drive See …

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Longest Serving Raleigh Fire Captains

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One of the longest-serving captains in the history of the Raleigh Fire Department is retiring. Captain Rich Coats (top right) will retire on January 1, 2023, with 36.28 years of service, including 23.99 years as a captain. He’ll rank just a hair behind Captain James C. Munns (bottom), who retired in 1999 with 37.36 years …

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Mapping The First Six Forks Fire Stations

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Morning map play. Using USDA aerial images from 1959 and 1971 to pinpoint the exact location of the original Six Forks FD locations. Plus a 2021 aerial image noting their approximate locations today. Maps via UNC Library. From my notes: 1956, first fire station is converted barn on south side of Howells Store at 4129 …

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