This is a blog version of a Facebook posting from January 24, 2022. Terrible news in Baltimore today, January 24, 2022. Three firefighters dead and fourth in critical condition after the partial collapse at a three-story row house, about 6:00 a.m. Killed were Lt. Paul Butrim, Firefighter/Paramedic Kelsey Sadler, and EMT/Firefighter Kenny Lacayo. Hospitalized and …
This posting is a work in progress. Last updated February 19, 2022. On December 31, 2012, the City of Raleigh Fire Department ended its 100th year of service as a career organization. It was staffed with 575 authorized positions and a budget of $50,483,534. They operated twenty-seven fire stations with twenty-eight engines, eight ladders, three …
Searches were suspended on Wednesday for the light plane with eight souls aboard that crashed off the coast of Carteret County, NC, on Sunday. The remains of all eight occupants had been located, along the plane’s fuselage. The expansive search started Sunday afternoon, after ATC at MCAS Cherry Point saw the craft disappear from radar. …
This is the time of year that attentions turn to diversity and inclusion. And an occasional question to Mr. History is “who were the first X, Y, Z” in the history of the Raleigh Fire Department. Let’s dig into those old (and newer) milestones, and build a list accordingly. Here we go. Inputs welcome, notably …
This is a blog version of a Facebook posting. Reader question. Hey Mike, both Philadelphia and NYC have had their deadliest residential fires in decades. What’s the worst residential/multi-family fire in NC history? Answer: Believe it’s the Guthery Apartments in Charlotte on North Tryon Street on March 15, 1940, that killed nine. Recounts the Charlotte …
On Tuesday, August 16, 1955, at the sixty-eighth annual convention of the North Carolina State Firemen’s Association, a portrait of the late, longtime state fire marshal Sherwood Brockwell was unveiled by his granddaughter, Mary Louise Joslin, daughter of Louise Brockwell Joslin and A. L. Joslin of Danville, VA. The portrait was presented to the NCSFA …
This content first appeared as a Facebook posting in August 2021. Hey Mike, which fire department was the first in North Carolina? Great question. Let’s tease out an answer. First, some ground rules. For our purposes, fire department = fire company, as that was the verbiage of colonial times. Second, fire companies do NOT include …
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Note: See this Facebook posting for comments and discussion about this blog posting. This posting was updated on November 14, 2021 On August 1, 1979, the Nahunta Volunteer Fire Department in Wayne County became the first rural fire department in both North Carolina and the nation to receive a municipal fire insurance rating, because of …
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Contents Introduction Durham’s Auxiliary Trucks Wilmington’s Auxiliary Trucks Sources Introduction How many cities in North Carolina operated “auxiliary trucks” in the 1940s and later? Show are trucks from Wilmington, Raleigh, and Durham. The top photo, from a photocopy, appears in Wilmington Fire Department 1897-1985. More on their auxiliary trucks below. The middle photo is Raleigh’s 1948 …
Research notes on the history of the Oak View Fire Department in Guilford County, which protected the Oakview community just outside the old city limits of High Point. They were chartered in 1952, started operating in 1955/56, and merged with the city on January 1, 1960. Newspaper Citations See some of these articles in this …