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, …
This week the Town of Warrenton (NC) announced on Facebook that the Plummer Hook & Ladder Museum (not yet open to the public) had a new addition, their second piece of antique apparatus: the town’s old 1982 American LaFrance Century pumper, 1250/1000/25F . The engine originally served Austin, TX, and was equipped with a 500-gallon …
What’s the (complete) history of the Cary/Yrac split in the early 1960s, that created a second fire department for calls outside of town? Have lately found conflicting accounts. Let’s take a (long) look. Earlier Summaries Legeros in 2003, from his Raleigh & Wake County Firefighting [Volume I], wrote the following: “In 1961, the Cary fire …
Continue reading ‘The (Complete) History of the Cary/Yrac Split’ »
Tale of a tragedy from western North Carolina. Early in the morning of Tuesday, July 14, 1942, a pair of explosion at a bulk fuel storage facility in Waynesville killed six people, and also fatally injured Fire Chief Lawrence Kerley. The local newspaper, the weekly Waynesville Mountaineer, provided ample coverage of the disaster, including these …
August 2020 The officers of the first-arriving engine and ladder companies have shared their personal stories of that night, as a peer support resource. The recording was produced by the Greensboro Fire Department History Book Committe, and is linked from their web site at http://gfhbc.org/ May 2018 This blog posting was originally posted on Legeros …
Continue reading ‘Five Children Killed, No Working Smoke Alarms, Greensboro’s Deadliest Fire’ »
This posting will be updated as more information is provided about the operations of the newly expanded Knightdale Fire Department. July 8 Here’s the post-merger list of units and their locations: Engines / Squads E131 – Clifton Street (Sta 1) – 2007 Pierce Contender pumper-tanker, 1250/1000 – Ex-EWFD E132 – Steeple Square (Sta 2) – …
Continue reading ‘Eastern Wake Fire-Rescue Merges with Town of Knightdale’ »
Three times before this year the North Carolina State Firefighters’ Association has cancelled their annual convention. Twice due to “war conditions” in 1943 and 1945, and again in 1946, due to restrictions on the availability of meeting places. The government had a very short list of approved groups for convention gatherings. The Association printed and distributed annual …
Continue reading ‘Cancelled Due to War Conditions – NCSFA Conference History’ »
This posting originated on Facebook and the content was moved to the blog on June 24. Let’s see if we can make some sense of Knightdale’s early tankers. Here’s what’s found in the old meeting minutes, plus a couple other sources: First Unknown year, International, 1200 gallons Served 1957 to 1971 — 1956, Aug 02 …
During their first three months of 1956, the Knightdale Volunteer Fire Department responded over 100 fire calls. They were in their third year of operation. The calls are listed below, transcribed from the original log book. 03/11/56 – Two farm storage barns 03/14/56 – Car burning in yard 03/15/56 – Seven-room dwelling (out on arrival) …
Here’s another new interactive Google map from the Legeros History Labs, former firehouses of Raleigh and Wake County. View the map.
