Archive of entries posted by Mike Legeros

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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Emergency Phones

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From the archives. Random find. Utility poles in downtown Raleigh that once had emergency phones mounted. September 2010. Plus one historical picture. In 1971, city officials authorized installation of a telephone system to replace the familiar fire alarm boxes and for reasons including the frequency of false calls. By that year, false calls accounted for …

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Eastern Air Lines Flight 212 Crash in Charlotte

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This is an expanded version of a Facebook posting on November 24, 2022, and a blog archive posting (PDF) from April 8, 2010. Courtesy of the Don Sturkey Photographic Materials (P0070), North Carolina Collection, UNC-Chapel Hill Library, from Fatal Distraction by Philip Gerard in Our State magazine. Contents Introduction Timeline Charlotte Fire Department Narrative Introduction On …

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Black Fire Companies of Fayetteville

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This is a blog version of a Facebook posting from November 15, 2022. What’s the history of the city’s colored fire companies, as they were called, back in the day? Shown is a clipping from the Statesman on February 7, 1874, via North Carolina Newspapers. Great research topic for someone and made easier by the …

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