Introduction Here’s a historical perspective on Guilford County’s fire system in 1966, including dispatch procedures, unit numbering, radio signals, and run cards. Plus a pair of incident details. This was presented at the North Carolina State Firemen’s Association annual meeting that year, held in Carolina Beach on August 1 and 2, and is copied from …
Evening update: See Legeros photos. Two alarms were struck yesterday at 1723 Crossroads Arbor Way. Two-story, garden-style apartment building with sixteen units and 10,656 square-feet. Built 1999. Dispatched 2:19 p.m. Upgraded to working fire while companies were en route, based on caller information. Swift Creek Car 1 first-arriving, followed by Swift Creek Engine 1. Fire found …
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 …
Continue reading ‘Manteo Burns… Norfolk Sends Engine – 1939’ »
From the Coastland Times, Jan. 6, 1956, via Dare County Digital Heritage, and their extensive (and searchable!) archives of old newspapers. No other details.
Front page of the Watauga Democrat, January 1, 1953. Via the nifty North Carolina Newspapers site. Read this and other issues at https://www.digitalnc.org/newspapers/watauga-democrat-boone-n-c.
Found footage alert. Here’s 39 minutes of raw video from Meserve Hall at Shaw University, which went to four alarms in January 1991. Converted from VHS and posted to the Raleigh Fire Museum YouTube channel. Original videographer(s) TBD. Might’ve been two cameras operating, as the footage isn’t strictly sequential. Incident description below, from my Raleigh fire history …
Continue reading ‘Vintage Footage of Shaw University Fire, 1991’ »
From the May-June 1971 issue of Hose & Nozzle magazine. Piedmont Airlines prop plane made an emergency landing at Smith Reynolds Airport in Winston-Salem. Jammed landing gear forced a belly landing. Runway foaming was started, but stopped when the pilot reported that the plane had only a few more minutes of fuel. It had circled …
Continue reading ‘Emergency Landing at Winston-Salem Airport, 1971’ »
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 early 1960s, as (a.) reported to the State Insurance Commissioner’s office, (b.) compiled by the North Carolina State Firemen’s Association Statistician, and (c.) printed in the annual conference proceedings. Here …
Continue reading ‘Cigarette Carried to Attic By Pigeon and Other Unusual Fire Causes’ »
The long-awaited Pullen Road extension opened yesterday. Here’s a city news release about the $3.8M project that extends Pullen Road to Centennial Campus Parkway, by way of a new roundabout at Bilyeu Street. But did you know that Avent Ferry Road originally ran through there, and connected with Western Boulevard just east of Pullen Road? Below …
Continue reading ‘Pullen Road Extension – Historical Perspective’ »
December 2 Log book excerpts added at bottom of posting. November 25 Development is comin’ to the Capital Boulevard corridor inside the Beltline. Or, perhaps, more development. The Gateway Plaza shopping center, built in 1968, is planned for Big Things. Here are a couple news stories on same, from the Triangle Business Journal (2016) and News & …
Continue reading ‘When Gateway Plaza Burned, December 1987’ »
