This is a blog version of a Facebook posting from December 21, 2019.
Top photos from Durham Herald Company Newspaper Photograph Collection, North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Bottom photos by Lee Wilson.
First County Pumper – 1948 Mack
Durham’s first “county fire truck” was delivered in August 1948. It was purchased in the fall of 1947, cost $13,945, and was equipped with a “high pressure pump” capable of creating 600 pounds of pressure, and a 600 gallon tank. With a pair of 250 foot high-pressure hose lines and special nozzles.
The truck was first housed at Station 3, with a new company of ten men, with four “members of the truck’s crew” who were “on hand at all times.” It was placed in service on August 16, 1948. “Cooperation of residents in area[s] outside the city limits” was encouraged, notably for maintaining roads and bridges. Also, for “forest and grass fires in outlying areas,” requests should be “relayed through the county fire warden.”
Both the city and county contributed to its operation, each allocating $5000 in their budgets that year for operation and maintenance. Early staffing included a Captain, driver, and two men assigned to the truck. Some runs were as far as 25 miles (!) from Station 1. And as DFD history guy Tom Fowler once noted, it was a given that any structure would be fully involved by the time of their arrival.
It was totaled in a collision with a car on December 22, 1957, that killed the driver of the car and injured three family members. See photos at legeros.smugmug.com/History/Durham/County-Truck/
Second County Pumper – 1958 American LaFrance
Its replacement was delivered by rail car on October 22, 1958, an American LaFrance 900 Series [?] pumper, 750/____. It cost $23,423. The truck’s call sign was 6113, at one point. On April 29, 1975, that truck was totaled in a collision with a station wagon. The driver of the car was killed.
Third County Pumper – 1975 Ward LaFrance
The third county engine was placed in service on December 22, 1975. It was a 1975 Ward LaFrance Ambassador, specs TBD and painted yellow. By that time, there was a dedicated driver on each of the three shifts for the county truck.
County Tanker – 1966 International
By 1972, the Durham FD was also operating a county-owned tanker housed at Station 1 along with the county pumper, and also used for calls in the county. It was a 1966 International with a body built in Raleigh, likely by Alexander Welding, and a 1500 gallon tank. It was equipped with a gasoline powered pump in the rear. The tanker was painted yellow at some point. By this time, there were also four volunteer fire departments operating in the county, and the county truck and county tanker often answered calls in conjunction with those departments.
County Trucks Retired
By August 1983, the county was paying the salaries of 21 city firemen, three of whom worked as “rescue specialists.” They also owned the county fire truck and county tanker, and were half-owner of the department’s rescue truck, Rescue 11.
The two county trucks responded to fires in parts of the county not protected by Parkwood, Bethesda, Bahama, Redwood, and Lebanon FDs. They also responded to all “serious” fires fought by those departments, except for those in the Bethesda fire district. And nearly always, were “ordered back to the station” before it arrived, because the trucks weren’t needed.
In January 1985, the county announced that they were “going out of the fire and rescue business” in April. The county was still financing an engine and tanker, and half the expenses of Rescue 11. Its financing would end April 1. The 21 county employees working on the three trucks would get “city police or fire jobs.”
The county fire truck was designated Engine 13 and would be retired, and Tanker 16 would be replaced by the city. Both trucks were acquired by the Bahama Fire Department in Durham County.
See news clippings about this history at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Gjrdo4uqg63t30uWWa3aQJd5H26KpBJb?usp=sharing