This blog post is based on a Facebook posting from May 2020, the content of which was moved here. Early years 1941, July – Guilford College community members hold meeting about getting fire protection. They plan to petition the county for funds to buy a fire truck. 1945, Aug – County commissioners approve a fire …
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Let’s start a timeline, shall we? Posting to be updated as we go along… Created FCFD created in 1951. Effort led by Forsyth County Commissioner Wally Dunham, in response to a growing need for fire protection outside the city limits of Winston-Salem. There were just a handful of volunteer departments operating at the time: Kernersville, …
On October 20, 2019, starting at 7:25 p.m., fire and EMS units were dispatched to a reported plane crash at Umstead State Park, which borders Raleigh-Durham International Airport. The dispatched address was the intersection of Ebenezer Church Road and Graylyn Drive. The airport control tower reported loss of radar contact with a light plane, later …
Continue reading ‘Umstead Park Plane Crash, October 2019 – Incident Notes’ »
Found these plane crash photos from 1978 by Jim Thornton in the Herald-Sun photo collection at Wilson Library at UNC. Here’s the story behind them. On Monday night, February 13, 1978, a twin-engine Aero Commander 600 approaching Raleigh-Durham Airport disappeared from radar at 8:00 p.m. Six souls were aboard. The plane apparently struck a tree …
Continue reading ‘Five-Hour Search For Downed Plane at Raleigh-Durham Airport, 1978’ »
Here’s a surprise historical find, newly discovered audio recording of the 911 call, the dispatch, and the first 13 minutes of radio traffic, of fire units responding to the commuter plane crash in Morrisville on December 13, 1994. Listen to the recording at www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwV4H5GVK_Y. It was contributed by David Ferrell, a Morrisville Fire Captain and …
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Found for sale on eBay. Advertisement for “America’s first air ambulance service” in Durham, from 1947. Was this the same service that operated the air ambulance that crashed near Oxford two years later? To be determined. See that posting.
New interactive map: Raleigh-Durham area plane crashes. With an emphasis on major / serious / notable. Displays information about crash sites in Wake, Durham, Orange, Harnett, Johnston, and Franklin counties. Most are exact or close-close locations. Some are noted with question marks, and tagged in a general location. Let’s calls this the final-for-now version. Will …
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See photos from Sunday and Monday at legeros.smugmug.com/Fire-Photos/2019/2019-10-umstead-crash Here’s a run card for Sunday night’s aircraft incident, after radar contact was lost with a small plane on approach to Runway 32 at Raleigh-Durham International Airport. That’s the smallest of the airport’s three runways, and perpendicular to the main runway. The tower notified crash-fire-rescue and airport …
Continue reading ‘Run Card for Plane Crash at Umstead Park’ »
October 10, 2019 Here’s a factory photo of the completed truck, as posted on this Pierce Flickr page: October 30, 2018 News from Raleigh-Durham International Airport. They’ve ordered a Freightliner/Pierce pumper to replace CFR 1, a 2005 Ford F-550/4 Guys mini-pumper, 500/250/20. And it’s the first full-size pumper in the airport’s history.[1]
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 …
Continue reading ‘Plane Strikes Fire Truck While Taking Off – Charlotte, 1977’ »
