Elon College and a Tale of Two Fire Departments

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The story is a familiar one. Members of a municipal-based fire department separate themselves into a second group to serve rural residents. A second organization fire department is formed. The resulting relationship between the two departments can be good or not so good. The latter was the case in Elon College in Alamance County in the mid- to late-1970s. Members of the volunteer Elon College Fire Department (ECFD) formed the separate, short-lived Boone Station Fire Department (BSFD) and a rivalry resulted.  

Here’s a narrative of the events, based on articles from the Burlington Times-News and Hose & Nozzle (H&N) magazine, plus a couple other sources.  

Years 1974 and 1975

June 24, 1974 –  Agreement signed between ECFD and town board, for money raised or to be raised for the purpose of buying a truck for responding to fires outside of town. Source: Times-News, Nov 17, 1975.

Summer 1975 –  ECFD members wanted to establish a fire district for the areas they served outside the town limits, to reduce fire insurance rates for property owners. By that summer, they had raised about $4,000 to buy a rural fire truck, when someone suggested that they split into two groups under one roof. ECFD members voted down the idea. The 16 or so members that favored the idea went to the town board and eventually formed their own fire department. Part of the reason for the split, said the BSFD attorney later, was that “the best fire-fighting equipment was reserved for the town” and that “interference by the town board” had been the biggest problem. Source: Times-News, February 20, 1977.

June 20, 1975 – The non-profit organization Elon Rural Fire District (ERFD) was incorporated by Ralph McIntyre and his brother Richard McIntyre, the board chairman. Richard McIntyre was a Fire Training Area Coordinator with the Fire Service Training Division of the state department of community colleges. The department was located on Highway 100, about a mile west of town. Sources:: State corporation records, Times-News, Nov 20, 1975; April 25, 1976. 

July 8, 1975 – Town board meeting included a report by Richard McIntyre, chairman of the rural department’s board of directors. He told them that that the rural department had been incorporated and asked for action on their proposals: that they split from ECFD, have their own chief and officers, be allowed to operate from the town fire station, and be allowed to use town communications equipment but purchase their own fire apparatus. Objections were expressed about turning over $3,783 to the town, which McIntrye said had been collected by ECFD members toward buying a rural fire truck. The town board met the following night and asked those ECFD members who did not want to serve under ECFD Fire Chief Fred Loy to withdraw from the department. Source: Times-News, Dec 9, 1976.


Times-News, May 6, 1976.

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Snorkels in North Carolina

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Last updated February 6, 2023 – Content converted from web page to PDF document.

This is a re-posting of a Legeros Blog Archives posting from December 21, 2013, that’s no longer available on the old site, due to technical problems.  

Presenting a master list of all articulating platforms, including snorkels, that have served in North Carolina.  

View the document (PDF)


Photo credits, left to right, top to bottom: Lee Wilson, Scott Mattson Collection,  Dan Mack, Mike Legeros Collection, Jon Umbdenstock, Mike Legeros Collection, Jon Umbdenstock, Lee Wilson, Mike Legeros Collection.

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Waynesville Fire Chief Lawrence Kerley Killed in Explosion – July 14, 1942

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This is a blog version of a Facebook posting from August 14, 2020.

Tale of a tragedy. Early in the morning of Tuesday, July 14, 1942, a pair of explosions at a bulk fuel storage facility in Waynesville, NC, killed six people, and also fatally injured Fire Chief Lawrence Kerley. Below are a pair of images from the Waynesville Mountaineer on July 16. Read that digital issue. 

Some time around 3:00 a.m. an employee at the Standard Oil Company “bulk plant” on Water street discovered gasoline leaking from one of three horizontal storage tanks. He called the Fire Chief, who responded in a town car.

Chief Kerley was apparently near the plant office when fumes from the leak ignited, at 3:20 a.m., and caused the tank to explode. The chief ran about 400 yards to a nearby home, his clothing in flames. The resident at the house rushed him to Haywood County Hospital. (He would die from his injuries a month later.)

The storage tank, with one end sheared off and landing 50 feet away, was thrown against a parked gasoline tanker truck, and then landed 250 feet away, on the other side of the highway, and over a row of rail cars and their tracks. (While knocking over one of said coal cars.)

The blast also set aflame the nearby residence of the Caldwell family, where the wife and two children were reportedly killed instantly. The husband escaped his burning house and was found 100 yards away by a policeman. The husband died at the hospital at 7:30 a.m. that morning.

Also critically injured was the oil company employee, who died the following day, and a truck driver, who died four days later. Continue reading ‘Waynesville Fire Chief Lawrence Kerley Killed in Explosion – July 14, 1942’ »

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Raleigh Firefighter Loses Leg, 1958

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This is an expanded version of a blog archives posting (PDF) from September 4, 2012.

The history of the Raleigh Fire Department includes instances of members who were permanently disabled as a result of injuries on duty. Here’s one of those stories.  


RFD yearbook portrait, 1984

On February 18, 1958, Raleigh firefighter Claude W. Johnson broke his leg on duty. As that day’s Raleigh Times article reported, he fell on ice at the scene of a house fire at 407 Polk Street. Fire Chief Jack Keeter said “he jumped a fence and fell on the ice.” He added that Johnson “was in satisfactory condition, but would be in the hospital for some time.” Johnson was admitted to Rex Hospital, records a notation in a Raleigh Fire Department Local 548 Ladies Auxiliary scrapbook.

Five fire companies responded to the 6:45 a.m. blaze, which was reported by fire department switchboard operator Roy High, while he was returning home from night shift at Station 1. The upstairs ten-room frame house was severely damaged, reported the next day’s News and Observer. No residents were injured, “although it forced occupants into the street in night clothes.” 

Added the paper, “neighbors joined the family in carrying the furniture to safety. Mrs. Throne said she was getting her 11 year-old daughter off to school, when she saw smoke and noticed a trace of fire around the fireplace in the living room. The flame moved from the basement along the chimney to the second story. Firemen were forced to fight the fire from the attic entrance.”

The News and Observer on March 24, 1958, reported that doctors had amputated the left leg of the 31-year-old fireman. (His correct age was 34 years old.) The date of his injury was reported as March 1, which may be the date of the amputation. He lost about four inches of his leg below the knee. Surgery was required as blood had stopped circulating to the injured limb. Officials spoke to reporters about Johnson on Friday, March 21, 1958.

Johnson had been a member of the department for three years, the article reported, and was a Rolesville native.[1] Officials were quoted as saying he’d be transferred to the fire department’s switchboard.[2]

Johnson retired on March 30, 1976. That’s four years after the Raleigh and Wake County Emergency Communications Center assumed call-taking and dispatching duties.[3] 

Johnson died on July 27, 1991, at the age of 67. Cause of death was pneumonia, follow the onset of “parkinsonian” three years earlier. He and his surviving wife Annie Driver Johnson lived in Raleigh. He was buried at Watkins Chapel Baptist Church Cemetery in Middlesex, NC.

[1]Claude Johnson joined the department on September 16, 1956.  

[2]Driver Vernon J. Smith also lost his leg, in an apparatus accident on November 14, 1952. He worked in light-duty roles as his health permitted, including as dispatcher. He died of his injuries on March 10, 1956.

[3]Roy High, mentioned in the first paragraph, was a former firefighter. He was also seriously injured in an apparatus accident, when the “squad truck” and a Greyhound bus collided on September 11, 1947. High and Firefighter H. S. Stephenson were both thrown from the vehicle, and sustained injuries. As the story goes, High never returned to line duty, and remained a dispatcher the rest of his career.

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Two Alarms on Prince George Lane

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Mike Legeros photos

See photos by Mike Legeros | Listen to radio traffic

Two alarms (with a third for mayday, then cancelled) were struck in Raleigh on Sunday morning, February 5, 2023. Was the fourth working fire in eight hours. Dispatched 6:12 a.m. for Old Lead Mine Road and Mere Oak Drive. Reported house fire, plus report of people trapped on second floor.

Engine 4 arrived in the area and found heavy smoke. They located the fire building, a two-story, wood-frame apartment building addressed 9401 Prince George Lane. With 10,440 square-feet. Heavy fire found in right rear (A/D) corner on second floor, extending to roof. Also found fire in the rear (C) of the structure.

There were occupants on a balcony/at windows that needed rescue. Plus others inside on second floor. Ground ladders thrown to begin rescue of occupants. Four rescued from both outside and inside, plus additional residents evacuated.

Second alarm requested within five minutes of first unit arrival. Additional EMS alarm(s) also requested.

Interior attack. Ladder 4 later deployed, along with deck gun from Engine 16 and exterior stream(s), as fire conditions worsened on the right side of the structure (A/B) (Ladder 4) and also vented from attic space (C) (Engine 16). Extensive EMS response, with ambulances staged on Old Lead Mine Road.

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Two Alarms on Walden Pond Drive

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See photos by Mike Legeros | Listen to radio traffic

Two alarms were struck overnight in north Raleigh on Walden Pond Drive. It was the third of four working fires in the city in eight hours, between Saturday night, February 4, and Sunday morning, February 5, and the first of two extra-alarm fires during the same period. 

Dispatched 11:51 p.m. for 4707 Walden Pond Road. Two-story townhouse building with 7,914 [?] square-feet. Built 1973.

Engine 19 first arriving with heavy fire in front/left (A/B) corner of the building, on the first floor and extending into second floor and attic space. Interior attack, with second alarm requested within minutes and crews soon withdrawn for aerial operations and exterior streams. Ladder 15 deployed and flowed. Ladder 4 also raised but didn’t flow. 

Run card included:

Fire

  • E4, Sq7, E11, E15, E17, E19, E21, E22, E28
  • L1, L4, L15, L22
  • R16
  • B1, B2, B5 (command)
  • SO14
  • DC1, INV1, A10

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Fire Apparatus Photography – FireNews Feature From 2008

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In 2008, fire buff and photographer Jeff Harkey posted a series of articles about fire apparatus photography on his site FireNews.net. The articles included contributions from photographers Lee Wilson and Mike Legeros. The site and the articles have been preserved by the Internet Archive. Here’s a compilation of the articles in PDF format, created in January 2023.

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Understanding Alarm Levels in Wake County

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Presenting an explanation of fire and EMS alarm levels in Raleigh and Wake County. Compiled over the last couple weeks, for the benefit of local fire buff and scanner listeners. 

  • Raleigh Fire
  • Cary/Apex/Morrisville (CAM) Fire
  • Wake County Fire (General)
  • Wake County EMS
  • RDU Alert Levels

Read document (PDF).

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New Zebulon Fire Station

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The town of Zebulon is planning a replacement fire station. The first community meeting was held this week, to share information and receive feedback. There’s also a web page with information including a preliminary site plan, shown below.

Some details. The designer is ADW Architects. The location is beside the town hall. Wake County EMS will be co-located at the facility. The 24,000 square-foot building will include five drive-through bays. Next step is another community meeting in February, to incorporate feedback and share more views of the building design.

The project has been in development since 2018, when a fire station location study was completed and recommended a single headquarters fire station near US 64 and NC 96. 

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