Here’s another vintage news article, again via North Carolina Newspapers. Date line September 1, 1950. Brevard Fire Department as featured in The Echo, as digitized by the Rowell Bosse North Carolina Room, Transylvania County Library. The two-page story includes a nice picture of their gorgeous 1945 American LaFrance 500 Series triple combination. They still have …
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Last month, an update on Salisbury’s restoration of their 1941 aerial ladder was shared in this Facebook posting by the Carolina’s Chapter of SPAAMFAA: Rekindle Society group. The truck is a 1941 American LaFrance Type M-190 mid-mount aerial ladder (65-foot), registration number L-1627, shipped February 13, 1942. No pump, but was equipped to carry 1,000 …
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For your Saturday viewing pleasure, here’s a new version of my Raleigh Fire Department Downtown History Map. We’ve seen this before in an earlier blog post. There’s also a PDF copy on my RFD history site. This version displays fire department facilities from the volunteer era only. From the first engine house erected in 1853, …
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From the North Carolina State Archives comes this picture of the Spencer Shops Fire Department (competition) reel team in 1924. They’re posed “in town” and beside the Methodist church at the corner of Fourth Street and Yadkin Avenue. The industrial fire brigade protected the Southern Railway’s Spencer Shops, once the railroad’s largest steam locomotive repair …
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Here’s an interesting slice of social history, beginning with the provocative headline “Negro Firemen Acquit Themselves Well In Few Dixie Cities; Durham Hasn’t Warmed Up To Idea.” It was found via North Carolina Newspapers, a neat site with access to hundreds of digitized newspapers from around the state. Below is the front page of Durham’s …
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Found this in my files, a vintage photo (photographed, not scanned) from the Pilot Fire Department in Franklin County. These were their first fire engines. Right is a 1952 Ford/____ pumper, ex-Wendell. (That a Howe body?) Bought in 1974 when PFD was organized. Left is a former gasoline tanker that was donated and converted into …
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Pine Knoll Shores Fire Department recruitment ad, from the Shore Line newspaper, June 1, 2006. Via digital version via the History Committee of the Town of Pine Knoll Shores via North Carolina Newspapers.
Found a pair of Elizabeth City community facility documents from 1962 and 1968. The second appears to be a follow-up document. Here’s what they recorded about the fire department. Planning in 1962 FIRE PROTECTION Few other community services, if any, enjoy the wide-spread appeal and popular acceptance as the fire fighting organization. The very obvious …
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We recently paid a visit to the Charlotte Fire Department’s new headquarters. Opened last year, the two-story, 36,000 square-foot facility is located at 500 Dalton Avenue. That’s just north of uptown, on a prominent parcel between Statesville Avenue and North Graham Street. The triangular, ten-acre site was last occupied by a Sealtest plant and office …
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The Fayetteville Veterans Administration Hospital once had a fire department, we’ve learned through a SPAAFAA posting on Facebook, from the Dover (NC) Fire Department. Their first engine originally served the hospital, and is pictured below. It’s a 1941 Howe Defender that they received from Civil Defense surplus in 1953. What’s the history of the hospital’s …
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