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 reacquired 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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https://www.legeros.com/history/library For your reading pleasure. Vintage Civilian Defense Handbooks from 1942. Extracted from this hardcover compilation, via the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/14021300R.nlm.nih.gov. It’s missing a couple pages, notably Auxiliary Policemen. Will scan and add my copy of that one, at a later date.
For your Friday reading, here’s a bit of Forsyth County rescue history. Found on eBay a year or two ago. Vintage, 24-page “yearbook” of the (all-black!) Air King Rescue Squad. https://www.legeros.com/history/library/ They operated from 1962 to 1981, previously as Citizens Radio Club, and subsequently as Southeast Winston Rescue Squad. They ceased operation in 1993. Some …
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For your Monday reading. Here’s another vintage North Carolina fire department history book that I’ve scanned. Slowly building a digital library for everyone. More to come: CFD, GFD, WSFD, etc. They’re PDF copies and a bit reduced in size. Large but not voluminous. https://legeros.com/history/library
During the combined meeting of the North Carolina Firemen’s Association and the North Carolina Association of Fire Chiefs, held at the Hilton Hotel in Greenville, NC, on August 6-8, 1987, the vendors were invited to introduce themselves to the conference participants. Here’s who they were and what they said, as recorded in the printed proceedings: …