Happened upon the Ash-Rand Rescue building in Asheboro on Sunday, after a zoo visit. Found a school bus-turned-command post in the parking lot. The two-story building was chock full of rescue and EMS vehicles. (Something no longer seen in Wake County, where rescue services are nearly exclusively performed by fire departments. The exception is R.E.D.S, …
For your Saturday viewing pleasure, here’s a new version of my Raleigh Fire Department Downtown History Map. We’ve seen this before in an earlier blog post. There’s also a PDF copy on my RFD history site. This version displays fire department facilities from the volunteer era only. From the first engine house erected in 1853, …
Continue reading ‘History Map – Raleigh Fire Facilities, 1853 to 1912’ »
Saw this on Twitter this morning, from WCIV4 reporter Rob Mallia as retweeted by FDMaps.com. Feature of North Charleston’s new Station 2 at 2800 Carner Avenue. (They’re the third-largest city in SC, incidentally.) Formal opening ceremonies were held today. The 18,000 square-foot station houses two engines and a ladder company, has five “engine bays,” plus …
From the North Carolina State Archives comes this picture of the Spencer Shops Fire Department (competition) reel team in 1924. They’re posed “in town” and beside the Methodist church at the corner of Fourth Street and Yadkin Avenue. The industrial fire brigade protected the Southern Railway’s Spencer Shops, once the railroad’s largest steam locomotive repair …
Continue reading ‘Spencer Shops Fire Department Reel Team, 1924’ »
Here’s an interesting slice of social history, beginning with the provocative headline “Negro Firemen Acquit Themselves Well In Few Dixie Cities; Durham Hasn’t Warmed Up To Idea.” It was found via North Carolina Newspapers, a neat site with access to hundreds of digitized newspapers from around the state. Below is the front page of Durham’s …
Continue reading ‘Vintage News Story on Black Firefighters – Carolina Times, 1952’ »
Found this in my files, a vintage photo (photographed, not scanned) from the Pilot Fire Department in Franklin County. These were their first fire engines. Right is a 1952 Ford/____ pumper, ex-Wendell. (That a Howe body?) Bought in 1974 when PFD was organized. Left is a former gasoline tanker that was donated and converted into …
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Durham County EMS has taken delivery of a new Major Incident Response Vehicle (MIRV). The 2015 Freightliner 192/Hackney is named MIRV-1. It carries multi-patient incident equipment and supplies for 25 people, including marking cones for triage, treatment, and transportation areas. MIRV is also well-equipped for the winter storm that passed through. The truck has a …
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Pine Knoll Shores Fire Department recruitment ad, from the Shore Line newspaper, June 1, 2006. Via digital version via the History Committee of the Town of Pine Knoll Shores via North Carolina Newspapers.
Found a pair of Elizabeth City community facility documents from 1962 and 1968. The second appears to be a follow-up document. Here’s what they recorded about the fire department. Planning in 1962 FIRE PROTECTION Few other community services, if any, enjoy the wide-spread appeal and popular acceptance as the fire fighting organization. The very obvious …
Continue reading ‘Elizabeth City Fire Department Planning, 1962 and 1968’ »
We recently paid a visit to the Charlotte Fire Department’s new headquarters. Opened last year, the two-story, 36,000 square-foot facility is located at 500 Dalton Avenue. That’s just north of uptown, on a prominent parcel between Statesville Avenue and North Graham Street. The triangular, ten-acre site was last occupied by a Sealtest plant and office …
Continue reading ‘Exploring Charlotte Fire’s New Headquarters’ »