This posting was last updated in July 2024, with added history of county rural fire protection before 1951.

Introduction

This posting originated as a Facebook posting in August 2020.

Before 1951 – Part 1

In June 1945, county commissioners appointed George Sheek as Forsyth County Fire Chief. He was notably placed in charge of a rural fire protection program that had installed 17 wheeled chemical engines on the grounds of county schools. < Another was later added at the county farm.

Though housed on county property, the chemical engines were intended for use by rural residents and school employees alike. Each carried 40-gallons of dry chemical plus 100 feet of each. Each weighed 1,110 pounds and could be pulled by a car as fast as 60 miles an hour [!].

By January 1949, Sheek reported that the chemical engines had saved $300,000 worth of insured property over the years. However, in many cases, rural residents had not used the units. He was also aware of the “failure of communication” about the program and despite such attempts at holding community meetings. (“In some places, not a single person turned up.”)

He was also skeptical of the ability to create a “motorized county fire department,” due to (a.) poor roads, (b.) poor telephone system, and (c.) lack of a water supply. Those barriers were soon overcome, however, when Forsyth County FD was created in 1951, as well as the first community fire departments during that time.

The chemical engine initiative spurred some communities to augment the program, such as the Waltertown Lions Club, which bought a second unit. What happened to all those chemical engines and their wee “engine houses” at the schools? To be determined!

Before 1951 – Part 2

Smith Reynolds Airport received new Army Air Force fire and crash truck. Was stationed permanently at the airport and overseen by Fire Chief Sharon Aungst of the First Army Air Force Servicing Department. Was equipped with Foamite, carbon dioxide, and carbon tetrachloride extinguishers, plus 300 feet of hose to be used with water. Plus “various kinds of knives and axes” to access a crashed plane, as well as a “special kind of hook” used to “turn a burning plane” so flames “will not sweep toward” a trapped pilot. [WSJ, 3/9/43]

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