Fire Station Fire – Chadbourn, 1956
From the Coastland Times, Jan. 6, 1956, via Dare County Digital Heritage, and their extensive (and searchable!) archives of old newspapers. No other details.
Archive of posts filed under the Incidents category.
Christmas Day Blaze Guts Business Block – Boone, 1952
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.
Vintage Footage of Shaw University Fire, 1991
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 …
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Emergency Landing at Winston-Salem Airport, 1971
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 …
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Cigarette Carried to Attic By Pigeon and Other Unusual Fire Causes
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 …
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Pullen Road Extension – Historical Perspective
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 …
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When Gateway Plaza Burned, December 1987
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 & …
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Two Alarms on Wallingford Drive
Two alarms were struck this morning at 5051 Wallingford Drive. Dispatched 5:07 a.m. Engine 19 arriving at a two-story, garden-style apartment building with 10,356 square feet and eight units. Built 1985. Heavy smoke showing from the front of the structure. Transitional attack to start, then interior operations plus exterior blitz monitors for exposures. Second alarm …
Glenwood Towers – Major Fires and Fatal Fires
While we’re still reflecting on the Glenwood Towers high-rise fire from last week, let’s look at the historical perspective. What other major fires–and fatal fires–have happened since it opened in 1971? Fatal Fires Feb. 2, 2003Philip George Moultrie, 55Fifth-floor apartment. Victim found on living room floor. Pronounced dead on the scene. Apparently started by smoking. Dispatched …
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Two Alarms on Brook Knoll Place
On Sunday, October 28, two alarms were struck on Brook Knoll Place, in a townhouse complex around the corner from Falls of Neuse and Wake Forest Roads. Dispatched 6:43 a.m. Upgraded to working fire and second alarm, while units were en route, based on number of callers. Engine 15 arrived at a three-story townhouse with …