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

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This is a blog version of a Facebook posting created on November 14, 2022. Holiday Island Fire Brigade, created in 1984 to protect the resort community in Perquimans County. The community was located some four miles outside of the nearby Bethel VFD district. Organized in July 1984, it protected about 250 residential structures and 106 …

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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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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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Tarboro Fireman Dies From Illness After Fire – 1899

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Note: This is a version of a posting from Legeros Fire Line on Facebook. See that posting for reader comments and discussion. Found a reference to a Tarboro Fire Department firefighter fatality, and apparently duty-related. From the Proceedings of the North Carolina State Firemen’s Convention in 1899, page 26, from the Secretary’s Report: “Death has …

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