Archive of posts filed under the History category.

Fiftieth Anniversary of the Salem Fire Department – 1893

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Here’s a vintage booklet about the Salem Fire Department, printed for the occasion of their fiftieth anniversary, celebrated on September 16, 1893. The twenty-page booklet includes a history of the department going back to the Moravian settlement of 1766, and first fire protection laws in 1773. It’s presented courtesy of Duke University’s David M. Rubenstein Rare …

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Boston Buys Fire Engine For Fayetteville – 1832

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The story’s been long-told that Fayetteville received a hand engine from Boston in 1832, in the year following the great fire of May 29, 1831. But get this, it was donated by the Boston Fire Department and bought with “voluntary subscription of its members.” From the Fayetteville Observer on May 22, 1832, the engine had …

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Holiday Island Fire Brigade – 1984

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Found another obscure fire department. Or, in this case, fire brigade, as this Perquimans Weekly story said on August 30, 1984.  Protected Holiday Island, near Hertford, with some 250 residential structures and 106 families as permanent residents. The island was located four miles outside the district of the nearest fire department, Bethel VFD. And the community …

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Manteo Burns… Norfolk Sends Engine – 1939

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On September 11, 1939, a major fire in Manteo saw mutual aid arrive from far and very far away. Elizabeth City sent one or more units, from 67.3 miles away as the Google flies. As did Norfolk, VA, located 90.5 miles away today.  Reported Fire Engineering magazine in their November issue, Norfolk’s new 500 Series …

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First Rated Rural Water Supply – Nahunta FD, 1979

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Note: See this Facebook posting for comments and discussion about this blog posting. On August 1, 1979, the Nahunta Fire Department in Wayne County became the first rural fire department in North Carolina–and in the United States–to receive a Class 8 fire protection rating for its rural water supply system, that used tankers and portable …

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Code Word for Mutual Aid, Brock – 1953

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Back in the day, code words were used when requesting mutual aid from neighboring towns and cities. This was done to verify the authenticity of the requestor. The concept was first proposed at the 1950 conference of the North Carolina State Firemen’s Association. And enacted that year (I believe, need to check). By the time …

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North Carolina State Firemen’s Conference Proceedings, 1896

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The North Carolina fire service is quite old, and goes all the way back the late 1700s. Artifacts from earlier eras are harder to come by, and anything pre-1900 is a bonafide find. Thus it’s a hysterical historical pleasure to share some early conference proceedings from the North Carolina State Firemen’s Association, from August 1896. …

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Relocating Fire Station 12 – Dedication on January 16

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January 18, 2019Photos posted of the dedication ceremony: January 13, 2019The City of Raleigh is dedicating new Fire Station 12 on Wednesday, January 16, at 1:00 p.m. It’s located at 4306 Poole Road, about a mile east of old Station 12. It’s also the largest of the city’s twenty-nine fire stations, with over 18,000 square …

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