In September 1969, a new fire engine was delivered at Raleigh-Durham Airport. The Ansul 480 “aircraft crash rescue vehicle” was built on a 1969 International Harvster Loadstar chassis by Southeastern Safety Appliance Company in Charlotte. The Airport Authority authorized its purchase on August 5 of that year. It cost $32,250.50.

The truck was equipped with 1,350 of Purple K dry chemical extinguishing agent, and 250 of gallons of “light water.” The latter was water pre-mixed with foam concentrate. The rig was also the airport’s first pump-and-roll (er, spray-and-roll) rig, and its first larger-capacity truck. It was designated CT-2, later CT-12, later CFR-12. And remained on the roster in the 1990s, as memory serves.

Previously, the firefighting fleet consisted of two trucks: a 1950s pick-me-up truck with an Ansul dry-chemical system (600 or 650 pounds of Purple K) and a World War II-era 1946 International/Bean with a high-pressure pump, 300 gallons of water, and 30 gallons of foam. (Likely an Army Class 125 crash truck.) See my page of apparatus info for complete histories.

The 1969 International/Ansul crash truck was demonstrated on Tuesday, September 23. The next day’s Raleigh Times reported that “nine hundred gallons of jet fuel and 100 gallons of gasoline went up in a searing column of smoke and heat. But half a minute later, the blaze was tamed by a new fire truck.” The truck also helped improve the airport’s “fire rating.” But the rating dropped again, after an Eastern DC-8-61 landed.

Airport Manager Henry Boyd said “ideas were being kicked around” on how to raise the airport’s rating again. The old apparatus would also be retained.¹ Who were the firefighters that operated the truck? Those were “sales service personnel” who “had been trained in life saving and fire control.” (Full-time firefighters were added in 1977. Fire crews continued their secondary duties as ramp crews until about 1979, when the airport sold its aircraft fueling business.)

The airport soon had a military surplus 1959 Walter Class 1500 crash truck on the roster, likely obtained around 1970. That probably or certainly raised the airport’s fire rating back to the top. Then in 1973, a new Walter CB300 crash truck was purchased, with further improved the airport’s firefighting capabilities.

Here are a trio of Raleigh Times photographs from the demonstration. If the top image looks familiar, it’s also the cover photo of Mr. Blogger’s book Raleigh & Wake County Firefighting – Part II, published in 2004 by Arcadia. See more info on his books. Or learn more history of the airport fire department.

Raleigh Times photographs, courtesy (Raleigh) News & Observer, via North Carolina State Archives

And here’s the truck in later years. Left is a snapshot scanned from the old photos are the airport fire station. right is a picture by Lee Wilson.

¹The Times story described the existing apparatus as “converted foam generator World War II brush fire fighter, 650 pounds of dry chemicals, and Purple K extinguishers on all airport vehicles.”