Greensboro Bomb Squad Trucks – Then & Now

Let’s look at some law enforcement special units. Greensboro Police Department and their bomb squad trucks, past ‘n’ present. Reader/contributor David Raynor shares the vintage pictures. Top picture at the city garage in 1987, with containment equipment mounted on an ex-military 6×6. Bottom picture at the training center in 1991, with containment equipment mounted on …

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Vintage Photos of Wilmington Squad, Ambulance

From the files of reader/contributor David Raynor, here are vintage photos of two Wilmington Fire Department rigs. Top is a 1979 Chevy/1990 Sturdy Equipment manpower unit. Called Service 1, it operated as a “flying squad” with an Engineer, Relief Driver, and two firefighters. It was originally a 1979 E-One/Chevy midi-pumper, and converted in 1990 to …

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Vintage Photos from Shelby – Green Aerial Ladder & Red Water Tower

From the files of reader/contributor David Raynor, here are vintage photos of two unusual rigs from Shelby, NC. That’s Cleveland County, to the west. Top is Water Tower 30 (also called Ladder 30 at some point), a 1983 Ford F800 with local bodywork and a 35-foot articulating “water tower.” A former electric company bucket truck, …

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Forty Years (Almost) of Raleigh Fire Academies

For your Friday enjoyment, here’s a montage of Raleigh Fire Department recruit academy class photos from 1978 to 2016. Includes Academy 41, which graduated last night in downtown Raleigh. Congratulations! This one’s an incomplete collection, however. Some of the group didn’t have either a formal or even informal photo. See the entire collection of class …

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Fire on the Mall! Thirty-Five Years After the Mangel’s Building – July 7, 1981

Thirty-five years ago this month, on July 7, 1981, the Mangel’s Building on the Fayetteville Street Mall burned. The four-alarm fire was one of the largest in the city’s history. Hundreds watched as thick smoke blanketed the pedestrian mall, and as firefighters fought a difficult fire in an 80+ year-old building that was “built to …

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Vintage Photo of Vance Apartments and Fire Trucks, 1972

The Raleigh Public Record posted a story today [link expired:http://raleighpublicrecord.org/news/development-beat/2016/07/25/development-beat-miscellaneous-monday-2/] about a parking lot at the northeast corner of Edenton and Wilmington streets that’s slated for development. The site was once occupied by Vance Apartments, a three-story, 36-unit complex that was the largest of Raleigh’s then-four apartment buildings. But no one has a photo for …

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Vintage Photo of Wake New Hope Fire Car, 1975

For your Friday flashback, here’s a News and Observer photo from October 23, 1975, showing a Wake New Hope Fire Department “fire car” at the Plantation Inn on Capital Boulevard. And a station wagon no less! (Make and model, readers?) There was a fire in an attic that was discovered about 11:00 a.m. and quickly …

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More Raleigh Recruit Academy Videos

Who wants to watch some videos? The Raleigh Fire Museum has digitized a few more videos of Raleigh Fire Department recruit academies, from selected years between 1996 and 2002. The converted videotape recordings have been added to our YouTube channel, and are also listed on our web site, along with other academy videos, and historic …

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