This is a blog version of a Facebook posting from February 2021. On Thursday, April 23, 1959, Raleigh Emergency Rescue Squad volunteer member and Wake County Sheriff’s Deputy Robert L. Battle, 45, drowned in the Cape Fear River in Chatham County. He was serving as a squad member and assisting with a search for a …
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This is a blog version of an earlier Facebook posting. Random data play. Facts and figures about the 333 names on the North Carolina Fallen Firefighters Memorial, from research by Legeros. Contents – Career vs. Volunteer vs. Part-Time – Causes – Counties with Highest Counts – Departments with Highest Counts – Counts of Additions by …
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This is a blog version of a Facebook posting from January 24, 2022. Terrible news in Baltimore today, January 24, 2022. Three firefighters dead and fourth in critical condition after the partial collapse at a three-story row house, about 6:00 a.m. Killed were Lt. Paul Butrim, Firefighter/Paramedic Kelsey Sadler, and EMT/Firefighter Kenny Lacayo. Hospitalized and …
The Accident On August 27, 1891, three Asheville firemen were killed and three others were injured when the passenger train they were riding plunged from a trestle in Iredell County. They were returning from the state firemen’s convention Durham. The train had just passed Statesville and plunged from the iron trestle over Third Creek at …
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On Sunday, June 14, 1987, Greensboro Fire Department Captain Raymond J. Cockman, 49, suffered a fatal heart attack while on duty at Station 6, which was then located on Westover Terrace. He was Captain on Engine 6, and they had just returned from a call. It was 7:20 p.m. and they were getting ready to …
Tale of a tragedy from western North Carolina. Early in the morning of Tuesday, July 14, 1942, a pair of explosion at a bulk fuel storage facility in Waynesville killed six people, and also fatally injured Fire Chief Lawrence Kerley. The local newspaper, the weekly Waynesville Mountaineer, provided ample coverage of the disaster, including these …
Saturday, May 2, 2020, was the planned date for the 15th Annual North Carolina Fallen Firefighters Memorial Service. Due to the coronavirus, the event was postponed to August, to be co-located with the South Atlantic Fire Rescue Expo. On Friday, the postponed NCFFF events were announced as cancelled. This year’s addition to the memorial will …
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The 38th National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Service will be held in Emmitsburg, MD, on Sunday, October 6, 2019, to honor 92 firefighters who died in the line of duty in 2018 and 27 firefighters who died in the line of duty in previous years. The North Carolina firefighters being honored are: Michael Gene Goodnight West …
Found this last week. Will add to my fallen firefighters database. Edenton Fire Department firefighter Benjamin Henry Smith, 32, was killed in an apparatus accident while returning from a chimney fire on November 28, 1947. The accident occurred about 7:30 a.m. at the intersection of West Queen and South Granville streets[1], when the fire truck …
Found another firefighter fatality of yore, from an account in Daniel Bartholf’s new book “History of Firefighter in New Bern, North Carolina.” Here’s the story, from the book and newspaper accounts, copied from the state library in downtown Raleigh. On February 26, 1951, a New Bern Fire Department engine overturned while en route to a …
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