Durham’s First Black Firefighters

This content first appeared in a Facebook posting on December 13, 2019. Durham Herald Company Newspaper Photograph Collection, North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Here’s a bit of hidden history of the Durham Fire Department. Below is a photo the Bull City’s first black firefighters. They …

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Wake County Fire Districts Commission, 1954

In 1954, the Wake County Board of Commissioners created the Wake County Fire Districts Commission. This was the first group to govern the new rural-serving volunteer fire departments that were being organized in the county. Below is the resolution that created the group, from county minutes. View those minutes on this site.  RESOLUTION September 7, …

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Oren Fire Apparatus in North Carolina

Let’s start a list of Oren apparatus that served in North Carolina. Pictured rigs marked with (*): *Burlington – 1940 Diamond T/Oren – #RW&E-1363 – Legeros photo *Cape Fear Rural (Lee) – 1953 Ford/Oren – Engine 51 – Lee Wilson photo *Charlotte – 1953 Ford Big Job/Oren, 500/1000 – Engine 10 at Morris Field, high-pressure unit …

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Ten Years Ago – Future of Fire Service in the Fire Tax District

Morning history. Random find. Ten years ago this week, the Wake County Board of Commissioners received a presentation from county staff on the future of fire service in the Fire Tax District, which comprises the unincorporated areas of the county plus the town of Wendell. The county funds protection in those areas through contracts with …

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Smallest Active Firehouses?

This is a blog version of a Facebook posting from August 23, 2017. What are some of the smallest active fire station in North Carolina, as of August 2017? 1,040 s.f. – Penderlea Station 2, 363 Watha Road. 1,700~ s.f. – Clinton Station 22.  1,786 s.f. – Durham Station 5, 2212 Chapel Hill Road. Built …

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Raleigh Badge Numbers

This content first appeared in the older blog on January 19, 2013. Hey Mike, do you have a master list of all Raleigh Fire Department badge numbers[1], from long ago? Negative. Haven’t come across in 20+ years of research.  Some clues have presented, however. This list of names, addresses, and badge and helmet numbers was …

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Wake County’s First Rural Fire Truck

Morning history. Random find. The first “rural truck” in Wake County history. Built by members of the Apex Fire Department in 1952, to expand service to “rural residents,” e.g. those that lived outside of the town limits. News & Observer photos from May (top) and August (bottom) 1952, scanned from film prints.  Reported the paper …

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Cigarette Carried to Attic By Pigeon and Other Unusual Fire Causes

Updated December 2022 with content from archive blog postings, replacing links to pages no longer available. Back in 2009, we published a series of blog postings, listing vintage fire cause reports from around North Carolina from the late 1940s through the late 1950s, as (a.) reported to the State Insurance Commissioner’s office, (b.) compiled by …

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Visual History of Durham Fire Department

Updated on December 11, 2022. Chart has been pushed to production, version 1.0.  Here’s a draft of a Durham fire history chart, created in early 2020 during a run on DFD research. Let’s revisit and push the thing to production, shall we? View as JPG | View as PDF | Or via this Google Drive See …

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