Not fire related, but posting here for history buffs. State road map from 1938, via NC Maps site, showing the route of the old Warrenton Railroad. See full version (PNG, 108MB) in this Google Drive folder.
See also earlier Legeros Blog Archives posting.
See aftermath photos (forthcoming) | Listen to radio traffic
Two alarms were struck in Raleigh on Monday morning, March 22, 2021. Dispatched 9:24 a.m. for 2110 Thesis Circle in south Raleigh, near Lake Wheeler Road and I-40. Three-story, wood-frame, garden-style apartment building with 16,128 square-feet. Built 2014 say tax records.
Engine 2 first-arriving with heavy fire showing on the second and third floors, in the front of the structure. Second-arriving Engine 13 with water supply. Lines pulled, and exterior and interior fire attack started, along with searches of the building.
______ photo via Twitter
Battalion 3 arrived, gave secondary size-up, assumed command, and requested a second alarm about 9:35 a.m. By that time, fire was showing through the roof. Staging for second-alarm companies designated as Lake Wheeler Road.
Crews were withdrawn about 9:45 a.m., with evacuation tones sounded. Aerial operations were started, with Ladder 1 in the A/D corner, and Ladder 12 in the A/B corner. Once the bulk of the fire was knocked down, aerial operations were halted and crews returned inside the structure, to complete extinguishment.
WRAL image, screen grab from video footage
Controlled at 11:00 a.m., with crews remaining on scene through the next morning performing overhaul, extinguishing hot spots, and assisting residents with removing personal property. Cause determined as accidental, with twelve units rendered uninhabitable, and 95 people displaced, from news reports. No residents were injured.
Run card: E10, E13, E2, E20, L1, L12, R16, B3, B5 (first alarm), A28, B1, DC1, INV1 (working fire), E12, E8, E6, L14, L20 (second alarm), E5, Sq7, E11, B2 (special call), plus C1, C2, C3, C5, C14 (Safety Officer), plus EMS 11, 29, 50, 14, Truck 1, Medic 91, D1, D7. Chief 200, Chief 102.
Relief: L6, L15, E16, E21 (1300-1500); E4, E22, L23, L25 (1500-1700); E8, E27, B4 (1700-1900); E24, E26 (1900-2100); E17 (2100-0000); E25 (0000-0300); L4 (0300-0600).
Mike Legeros photo
Timeline
The Wake County Fire Commission will hold a virtual version of its regular scheduled meeting on Thursday, March 18, 2021. The meeting starts at 7:00 p.m.
The agenda and meeting documents are below. Information on submitting public comments and access for viewing/listening are posted on the Wake County Public Meetings Calendar.
Agenda
This content originated as a Facebook posting.
NCVFA history. Fabric (felt) pennant for the 1956 annual meeting of the North Carolina Volunteer Firemen’s Association, AKA the colored firemen’s association. They met in Warrenton in July of that year, for their 66th annual gathering.
^ Warrenton is notable in the state’s history of black firefighters as having the longest-serving black fire company, dating to the 1860s. They operated until 2004, when the municipal Warrenton FD merged with Warrenton Rural FD.
This one is a rare find, as surviving artifacts of the NCVFA are few and far-between. That is, to date. More on this later, as we’ll be attempting some shaking-of-the-bushes to see if we can find more.
It’s a felt banner, measure some twenty inches in length. This image was created in sections, using a flatbed scanner. It has a clear plastic sheet affixed with staples, and thus the source of the ripples seen in part of the picture.
From the collection of the (future) Plummer Hook & Ladder Museum in Warrenton. They’re a non-profit organization housed in the town’s old fire station, and who are steadily working on their facility and exhibits, but are still a ways away from opening to the public.
This content was first posted on Facebook.
Warrenton history. Factory photo of 1964? Ford/Bean, 750/500. Reg # B6706. Called a John Bean HPV Fire Fighter, and equipped with high-pressure capability.
Delivered with two high-pressure fog guns, two 1 1/2-inch pre-connected lines, three 2 1/2-inch outlets, and 1,200-foot capacity hose bed. Cost around $18,000.
Lettered as “No. 3,” meaning the third motor truck for the town, following a 1938 Ford/Oren, and a 1910s ___/Howe.
Scanned from photo print from the collection of the (future) Plummer Hook & Ladder Museum in Warrenton. They’re a non-profit organization housed in the town’s old fire station, and who are steadily working on their facility and exhibits, but are still a ways away from opening to the public.
Factory photo of Knightdale’s new and sharp-looking ladder. 2021 Pierce Enforcer Ascendant, 1500/500/107-foot. Third for the town[1], following a 1973 Ford/Pierce Telesqurt acquired in 2002, and a 1997 Pierce Quantum rear-mount added in 2009. Photo source.
[1] Two other aerials served the Knightdale Volunteer FD, back in its day, a 1991 E-One rear-mount 75-foot quint, and a 1975 Mack/Maxim/Hamerly mid-mount added in 1999. The Knightdale Volunteer FD became Eastern Wake FD in 2003, which merged with the town in 2020. Read those histories.
February 2021
Updated posting with call totals for 1955, call data for 1975 and 1976, and other information.
September 3, 2016
The Raleigh Emergency Rescue Squad was created in 1953. It was comprised of civilian volunteers and fire department drivers, and they operated equipment that was housed at the downtown fire station. (Their gear was initially funded by city, county, and private donations. They also subsequently received a monthly stipend from the county.) The squad responded in both the city and the county, but was not intended to compete with local ambulance services. They served primarily as a technical rescue unit, and also transporting patients when ambulances were not available in the city.
The volunteer component diminished over the early years (they primarily assisted with body recovery efforts in local lakes and rivers), and the rescue squad was soon operated exclusively by fire department members. A second rescue was added in 1975. After Wake County EMS was organized in 1976, “Raleigh rescue” served as their back-up, transporting patients when no county ambulance was available.
They also functioned as a private ambulance service, transporting firefighters in circumstances that included injuries at fires, injuries on duty, transfers between home and hospital, and even transporting family members.
How frequently were patients transported? As a sampling of official records finds (see below), they transported a few times a month in 1960 (one rescue), as many as 30 times a month by 1975 (two rescues), about the same amount in 1980, down to some ten a month in 1990 (two rescues), and just a couple times a year around 2001 (two rescues).
They stopped transporting patients around 2001. The reasons included that the department was no longer required to maintain that capability as part of their EMT-D requirement, and likely the very low call volume.
Still looking for more data and more oral histories. Will update as found.
Credits, left to right, top to bottom: News & Observer, City of Raleigh, City of Raleigh, Jeff Harkey, Lee Wilson
The Data Continue reading ‘How Often Did Raleigh Rescue Transport Patients?’ »
Notes on the early history of the Raleigh Emergency Rescue Squad. This is a placeholder posting which will be updated and expanded over time. Related: How Often Did Raleigh Rescue Transport Patients?
See expanded version of this history and other information at https://legeros.com/ralwake/raleigh/history/rescue
1947 – First proposal for a Raleigh rescue squad.
1952 [?] – Creation of a Raleigh rescue squad started.
1953 – Rescue squad organized, with volunteer members, with boats and a trailer and other equipment, funding for vehicles requested, and soon assisting with searches for drowning victims. They are based out of Station 1.
1954 – June – Panel van received by this time. Assigned a full-time fire department driver.
1954 – June 13 – Fire department answered a heart attack call on West Whitaker Mill Road at 7:45 a.m. on June 13, 1954. This is likely the first recorded call for the rescue squad.
1954 – By July 16, 1954, Rescue 1 has been placed in service at Station 1 with a 1954 GMC panel van.
1955 – November 3 – Civil Defense heavy-rescue truck delivered.
1959 – August 23 – Rescue squad volunteer member Robert L. Battle, 45, drowns in the Cape Fear River, while assisting with a search for a missing boater, who was missing after his fishing boat overturned the day before, about two miles above the Buckhorn Dam. Battle was a Wake County Sheriff’s Deputy of four years, and previous a city police officer.
1962 – May 23 – News story includes this organizational information. Squad is comprised of “some 25 to 30 volunteers, led by Raleigh firemen Harold Jones and Ralph Hailey,” and who “serve only on the Rescue Squad, each heading a 12-hour shift.” Twelve other squad members are firemen who “serve on the Rescue Squad in their off-duty hours. Other members of the squad are railroad dispatchers, bus drivers, insurance men, store clerks…” The squad answers “a hundred or more calls a year.”
1962 – May 23 – By this time, squad equipment includes two complete scuba diving sets.
1966 – August 18 – Chevy C360 panel van purchased as new Rescue 1. Source: Legeros apparatus register.
1974 – July 1 – By this time, two rescue units are in service, with additional allocated positions.
1974 – October __ – Rescue 1 receives 1975 Chevy Silverado/Murphy ambulance. Purchase partially funded with matching federal Civil Defense funds. Source: Legeros apparatus register.
1974 – October 28 – Rescue 9 placed in service with 1974 Chevy Silverado/Murphy ambulance. Same notes as above.
1975 – April – Two rescue boats and trailers received as donations.
1975 – July – Two new outboard motors received as donations.
1976 – April-May – City Council adopts plan for ambulance service jointly funded by the city and the county. Includes use of both city rescue squads. Plan is abandoned and county forms own EMS service.
1976 – July 28 – Rescue 1 moved to Station 3.
1978 – July 24 – Rescue 3 moved to Station 12 and Rescue 9 moved to Station 14.
1982 – February 1 – Rescue 12 moved to Station 7, Rescue 14 moved to Station 6.
1985 – March 6 – Rescue units plan to take over assist invalid calls [from which agency?].
Meet Raleigh’s new (probationary) firefighters, who graduated on January 13, 2021, from Recruit Academy 45. The twenty-seven week academy started in April 2020. Their training included a number of modifications due to COVID conditions, including condensing the program from 32 to 27 weeks. The graduation was also held outdoors, for the first-time in decades and maybe ever. At the event, an empty chair was present for instructor Lt. Herman Ellis, who died off-duty in a motor-vehicle accident on January 3. See photos of the graduation.
The Graduates
James W. Bullock III
Tyler N. Bunce
Camden T. Duchesneau
Dillon R. Eckert
Stephen B. Garner
Corey A. Joe
Matthew J. Knight
Dylan M. Lawrence
Alexandra D. Lee
Robert E. Lugo
William A. Margolin
Christian Mejia
Lucila M. Vargas
Nicholas J. Mullin
Michael D. Owens
Bryan J. Parker
David D. Power
Derick Rodriguez
Courtney S. Rosenkranz
Justin C. Ruffin
Noah S. Scalish
Dylan P. Short
Troy R. Swanzey
Joseph B. Tindal
Anna F. Wellborn
Andrew C. T. Williford
Elijah J. York
Photo courtesy Raleigh Fire Department
January 23
This meeting is a must-listen for anyone interested in the nuts ‘n’ bolts of the county fire service, as members received the long-cooking recommendations for a county-wide standard of fire service response, for all departments serving unincorporated areas, e.g. all except Raleigh and RDU.
Was two years in the making by the commission’s Administrative Subcommittee, as a Long Range Planning initiative. And fully data-driven, to arrive at objectives for response performance for structure fires, EMS calls, technical rescue, and haz-mat. The fire commission members received the report, the recommendations, and will smoke things over until the next meeting(s), for discussion and decision.
Also at the meeting, two other inputs were presented. First, the results of the community engagement survey. Total 1,384 responses from those living in those unincorporated areas. Second, a neat study from NCSU that presents ideas for optimized fire station locations for protecting those unincorporated areas, and notably looking forward ten years. (The study was received as “another tool in the toolbox” as needed for the commission to use in any long-range planning.)
One important note, noted in the meeting, the NCSU study has some points to be tweaked, to reflect such recent developments as Wendell Station 3 now operating and the merger of Eastern Wake with Knightdale.
Listen to the audio file on the county site.
Read the studies and accompanying materials here, which we’ve organized with pre-pended labels: https://legeros.com/blog/docs/wcfc/2021-01
January 19
The Wake County Fire Commission will hold a virtual version of its regular scheduled meeting on Thursday, January 21, 2021. The meeting starts at 7:00 p.m.
The agenda and meeting documents are below. Information on submitting public comments and access for viewing/listening are posted on the Wake County Public Meetings Calendar.
Agenda