In July 1926, the North Carolina State Firemen’s Association acquired a fire engine. At the annual convention and tournament, held that year in Morehead City, they took delivery of a new American LaFrance Type 40 combination chemical hose wagon. The truck was presented as a personal gift from the southern manager of American LaFrance, Mr. …
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https://legeros.com/history/library/ Let’s add a vintage manual to our ever-expanding digital history library. The original Jaws of Life and their 32-page manual, undated. Maybe… late 1970s or early 1980s?
https://www.legeros.com/history/library Added my digital history library. Have had for a couple years. Bought on eBay. List originally saved by Eric A. Sprenger (“Mr. Seagrave”), then shared by Ken Soderbeck. Original date unknown. Scan of second-generation (or more) photocopy. Close as we’ll get to a Seagrave delivery list, I guess. How many were delivered to North …
Found another firefighter fatality of yore, from an account in Daniel Bartholf’s new book “History of Firefighter in New Bern, North Carolina.” Here’s the story, from the book and newspaper accounts, copied from the state library in downtown Raleigh. On February 26, 1951, a New Bern Fire Department engine overturned while en route to a …
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New book alert! History of Firefighting in New Bern, North Carolina – Colonial Days to the 21st Century has been published. The author is Daniel Bartholf, a 45-year veteran of the volunteer fire service (NY, NC, WV) and a member of the staff at the New Bern Firemen’s Museum. His bio is below. The softcover …
Antique acquisition alert! The Wake Forest Fire Department has re-acquired their old 1947 Chevrolet 6000/Southern pumper[1]. It was delivered in 1948, and replaced a 1934 Chevrolet pumper, which was given to the town’s second fire department, Wake Forest Fire Department #2. They were an all-black department, that operated separately from WFFD. And were one of …
There’s a new source of digitized proceedings of the early conferences of the North Carolina State Firemen’s Association. The Internet Archive (archive.org) has digitized a portion of the proceedings in the North Carolina Collection at the University of North Carolina. The direct links are listed below, and each year’s proceedings is fully-searchable. There are also …
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New addition to the Legeros history library, the Handbook of Civilian Defense – What every loyal American can do to help the United States win the war. By Lt. Robert H. Rankin, St. John’s Military Academy and published 1942. https://legeros.com/history/library Scanned from copy in personal collection. Wee hardcover with 95 pages. Includes such “keys to …
Found this neat piece of Raleigh history this week, with more details on black auxiliary firemen during World War II. Previously on the Legeros Channel, just a bit of this was known: “A company of black auxiliary firefighters was suggested, or asked about. Some black citizens served as auxiliary firemen, as cited in the September …
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Found the correct date for the creation of the state colored firemen’s association, formally known as the North Carolina Volunteer Firemen’s Association.[1] It’s been previously cited on my site, and in my writings, as “1888 or 1889.” That is incorrect. The year was 1890. The evidence is a pair of period newspaper articles: Greensboro North …
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