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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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The Fayetteville Veterans Administration Hospital once had a fire department, we’ve learned through a SPAAFAA posting on Facebook, from the Dover (NC) Fire Department. Their first engine originally served the hospital, and is pictured below. It’s a 1941 Howe Defender that they received from Civil Defense surplus in 1953. What’s the history of the hospital’s …
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Looking for major fires in North Carolina fire stations over the years and decades (and centuries). 2014, June 22 – North River-Laurel Road FD at 839 Merrimon Road in Carteret County – Fire started in apparatus bay and destroyed all three trucks and equipment. Believed to have started by 1991 Mack/Ward LaFrance (correct?) pumper/tanker. Bay …
January 16 One of the rescued boaters filmed their adventures–including while airborne!–and has posted a six-minute video on Vimeo: January 12 On Sunday, January 10, the North Carolina State Highway Patrol and the Raleigh Fire Department performed a helicopter rescue of two kayakers who capsized on the Cape Fear River in Lee County. They …
Continue reading ‘Updated with First-Person Video – Helo Rescue in Lee County on Sunday’ »