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 …
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 …
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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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 …
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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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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Here’s the run card for New Hope Fire Department’s major woods fire last week, on Wednesday, May 29. Some 50 acres were involved, and threatened some residential structures. The resources included 60 firefighters, 34+ pieces of apparatus, and a complete EMS box alarm with 16+ EMS personnel. The first units were dispatched at 5:02 p.m., …
Here are factory photos of the Zebulon Fire Department’s new Pierce Pumper 91 and Ladder 9. The ladder truck arrived on Tuesday, May 28. It’s a 2019 Pierce Enforcer PUC Ascendant, 1500/500/107-foot. The engine is due soon. Download the uncropped versions on the company’s Flickr site, https://www.flickr.com/piercemfg.
Northern Wake Fire Department took delivery on Monday, May 21, of their new Ladder 35, a 2019 Pierce Impel PUC Ascendant, 1500/500/107-foot. Once in service, it’ll be housed at Station 3 on Norwood Road. It replaces a 1999 Pierce Dash rear-mounted aerial ladder, 1500/200/20/105-foot. It’s one of three incoming 107-foot Pierce quints in Wake County, …
Found this neat piece of Raleigh history this week, with more details on black auxiliary firemen during World War II. Previously on the Legeros Channel, just a bit of this was known: “A company of black auxiliary firefighters was suggested, or asked about. Some black citizens served as auxiliary firemen, as cited in the September …
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