The Grandstand Burned… But The Race Continued, 1959

Posted by Mike Legeros on 21 March 2020, 7:44 am

This content was original posted on the Legeros Fire Line Facebook page. Go there for more content and much more frequent postings.

March 26, 2020
Photo error!. The previously included photos of a burning grandstand were not from this incident, but an earlier speedway fire in Greensboro. The grandstand at their fairgrounds burned on May 1, 1955. We will re-post the pictures in a new blog posting, with information about that incident.

March 21, 2010
Sunday, March 29, 1959, at the Wilson County Fairgrounds, in Wilson, NC. The annual Easter NASCAR ran was about to begin. But then a fire was discovered smoldering beneath the stands.

Twenty minutes passed before the Wilson Fire Department received the alarm at 1:45 p.m. And by then it was too late. The 200-foot long, 39-year old wooden building was consumed by flames, though without any injuries.

Some 3,000 spectators were safely evacuated, with calm directions over the loudspeakers. Fire Chief T. R. Bissette had praise for the officials, but also condemned the fans for “monkeying with the fire for 20 minutes before reporting it.”

The blaze was only a temporary disruption. Noted the Rocky Mount Evening Telegram on March 30, “the race began as soon as the fire was brought under control.”

These dramatic photos–two views plus closer-cropped sections–are from the Hose & Nozzle archives, courtesy of Troy FD. Original photographer(s) TBD.

See also this racing site posting for information about the fire: https://www.racing-reference.info/showblog?id=3418 [link expired]

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CANCELLED – Wake County Fire Commission Meeting – March 19, 2020

Posted by Mike Legeros on 12 March 2020, 8:35 pm

March 17
The special-called meeting on April 9 has also been cancelled.

March 12, 2020
Due to the very fluid and evolving COVID 19 situation, Wake County Fire Services has cancelled the scheduled March 19, 2020, meeting of the Wake County Fire Commission and all scheduled subcommittee meetings for the remainder of March. They will move the agenda items that were on the March 19, 2020, meeting on to the agenda of the scheduled special-called fire commission meeting on April 9, 2020 [which has now also been cancelled].

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Relocating Cary Station 9 – Ready to Open

Posted by Mike Legeros on 10 March 2020, 6:05 am

See photos of project.

March 12, 2020
Ready to Open

Long-overdue update. Cary Station 9 is but days away from going into service. Paid a visit on Tuesday and snapped some pictures inside. Have also been taking pictures over the last eighteen months of construction, both ground and drone pictures. See those photos.

Station 9 will house Engine 9 and a relocated Battalion Chief.

October 25, 2018
Groundbreaking

The Town of Cary on Tuesday held a groundbreaking ceremony for the relocation of Fire Station 9. The 2.53 acre site is located at 1427 Walnut Street, and will replace a smaller facility built in 1974.

Station 9 currently occupies old Station 2, which relocated in 2015 to a new station on Chatham Street. Engine 9 was activated on December 18, 2015. Read blog post.

The new Station 9 is located 1.4 miles to the south and east, and closer to the interstate and commercial properties on the southwest side of town.

Construction of the $7.9M facility is expected to be completed in winter 2020.

Project History

2013, October 10 – Property purchased by town of Cary. Site had church buildings on the property.
2015, December 18 – Engine 2, Rescue 2 relocate to new quarters.
2015, December 18 – Engine 9 placed in service at old Station 2.
2016, Fall – Planning and design started.
2017, August – Buildings demolished on site.
2017, September 12 – Community meeting at Station 2 about project.
2018, October 23 – Groundbreaking ceremony.

Video of Rendering Continue reading ‘Relocating Cary Station 9 – Ready to Open’ »

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Raleigh Fire and Police Staffing Studies

Posted by Mike Legeros on 28 February 2020, 7:50 pm

The City of Raleigh recently received a pair of staffing studies about the fire and police departments. City Council received a summary of the reports at a work session on Monday, February 24, 2020. You can watch that work session at www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJJa30Nb9Qo. Start at 01:05:00. Below are links to the studies, the presentation slides, and a summary of the fire study recommendations:

Fire Department Study
Police Department Study
Public Safety Staffing Study – Presentation Slides to City Council
View documents at https://legeros.com/blog/docs/rps/

Fire Study
Report dated February 14, 2020
Matrix Consulting Group
155 pages

Summary of Recommendations:

System Improvements

Increase the minimum staffing of seven engine companies [E1, E13, L4, E2, E3, E5, Sq7, E20, L7] from three personnel to four personnel to increase the resources necessary for maximum and high-risk structure fire responses. Begin with adding eight (8) FTE Firefighters to increase staffing of engines 1 and 13 in FY 2021. Monitor call demand and response performance annually to determine the need for additional resources.
Completion of the renovations to and rebuilding of Stations 6, 11, and 22 is imperative to ensure adequate resources are available for the fire protection system.
Monitor call demand and response performance to determine the need for additional resources.

Office of Fire Marshal

Authorize a FTE Division Chief position in the Office of the Fire Marshal [to realign span of control, free time for Fire Marshal for other duties, etc.].
Authorize three (3) additional FTE Deputy Fire Marshals in field inspections function to conduct follow-up inspections on violations found in existing occupancies.
Continue to monitor growth in the City and add additional Deputy Fire Marshal (Inspectors) for each 750 occupancies requiring a mandatory inspection constructed in the City.
Continue to monitor the growth in the City and add an additional plans examination staff when submittals exceed 6,000 annually
Authorize one (1) additional FTE field inspector position and assign the position to work with the Special Projects Team.
Continue to monitor the growth in the City and add additional Deputy Fire Marshal (Inspectors) for each 1,250 new construction occupancies requiring an inspection.
Continue to develop the public safety education programs and increase exposure of fire and life safety programs to identified at risk groups in the City.
Authorize three (3) FTE Senior Firefighter positions to conduct life safety education programs in the City and assign one to each of the inspection districts.

Training

Authorize seven (7) FTE Instructor positions for the Training Division with a variety of expertise to support all functional areas in the Division and minimize impact on the Operations Division to provide instructors.
Authorize a FTE recruitment specialist for the Training Division that reports to the Academy Captain.
Convert the part-time Assistant EMS Coordinator to a full-time position.
Authorize a FTE position focused on quality assurance and quality improvement of EMS [first responder] services.

Office of Fire Chief

Reassign the Technology and Planning Units to report to the Support Services Division [to realign span of control to manageable levels].
Authorize an analytical position to assist the Engineer Planning Officer in carrying out complex assignments.
Authorize three (3) dedicated Safety Officers, one on each shift to respond to calls for service requiring a Safety Officer and investigate workplace accidents or incidents resulting in damage or injury.

Services

Authorize two (2) clerical positions to the Support Services Division, one (1) in FY 2021 and one (1) in FY 2022 to provide clerical support and to assist in the management of inventory items.
Authorize two (2) additional mechanics to the Support Services Division to improve the maintenance and repair of apparatus, other motorized equipment and staff vehicles.

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Durham Public Safety Program Study, 1985

Posted by Mike Legeros on 16 February 2020, 6:42 pm

In March 1985, Durham city officials received a comprehensive analysis of their Public Safety Program, a combined fire and police system in place since 1970. The study concluded that both services could be improved and their costs lowered by either modifying the PSO program, or eventually separating the two services. City officials chose the latter. Then what happened? That’s a story for a future time.

Meanwhile, read the study (PDF, 20 MB): via Google Drive

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Knightdale Fire Study, 2018

Posted by Mike Legeros on 14 February 2020, 11:04 pm

On Thursday, February 13, 2020, a community meeting was held in eastern Wake County, to present a proposed merger of the Eastern Wake Fire Department with the town of Knightdale and its fire department. During the meeting, a town-commissioned 2018 study of the Knightdale Fire Department was heavily referenced.

Here’s that document: www.legeros.com/blog/docs/2018-knightdale-study.pdf

The four original components of the study’s objectives were:

evaluate existing and future station locations
evaluate existing and future staffing
evaluate existing and future fleet needs
evaluate the adequacy of future succession planning.

The 114-page study presented these recommendations:

Station Locations

Commission a feasibility/implementation study to evaluate a merger/consolidation of operations/organizations between the town of Knightdale Fire Department and the Eastern Wake Fire-Rescue Department.
Develop plans for land purchase for a station location in Grid 11 of the Station Location Matrix located as near as practical to Lynwood Road and the I-540 overpass. This would include search in the area of Lynwood Road and Hodge Road.
Begin Design work and financial planning for a new fire station to principally serve first due to Grid 11 in the Station Location Matrix. The entire project for the deployment of a new station and the resources required for equipping and staffing the station with a single engine company or quint would be planned over budgets from 2019 until 2021. Based upon recent and similar projects in the region, it is recommended that an estimated budget might be approximately $350,000 for planning and design, and $3.5 million to $4.5 million for land acquisition and construction.
Begin negotiations with Wake County Fire Services to begin participating in the Wake County Cost Share Program as part of a merger/consolidation effort.
Begin negotiations with Wake County EMS. This organization has a very strong interest in co-locating in a station that provides them the options in response which new Station #2 might. The degree of financial participation may be based on a number of factors, but could be as high as 20%-33%. The negotiation could include offsets for some operating costs associated with EMS use of a portion of the bay and crew areas.
Utilizing the forward view approach encouraged by this model, develop a long term plan for additional fire stations (15-20 years out) as the jurisdiction continues to develop.
The Mingo Bluff property is not a very effective or efficient location for a fire station. It will not be of value to co-locating partners. Access to the nearest main thoroughfare requires negotiating neighborhood streets and would be very close to a school. The property itself may be very xpensive to prepare for construction. The recommendation is to find another use for this site other than emergency response deployment.
. Begin a process to routinely capture and analyze Alarm Handling Time, Turnout Time and Travel Time for the first due unit for incidents as well as the full effective response force. This behavior and data will be required for accreditation.

Personnel

There is an immediate need to add four personnel to staff the ladder company.
Plan for company staffing of four personnel for a company located in the new Knightdale Sta.#2.
Add a deputy or assistant chief position to assist the fire chief with administration and department management and to enable future succession planning for fire chief’s position.
Transition the part-time fire inspector position to full time.

Fleet

There is an immediate need to replace [Ladder 135]. This piece of equipment is twenty-one years old, six years older than the current industry standard recommends for the maximum age of a first line piece of fire equipment and is older than the recommended replacement age in the Wake County Fire Commission Apparatus Committee, Policy and Procedures. This aerial device is larger than the district would require therefore, it is further recommended to investigate replacing the 105 foot aerial with a 75’ or 85’ aerial on a shorter and much lighter chassis.
It is recommended to replace Engine 134 in the year following Ladder 135 and rotate apparatus to place the new engine as first out and remaining engines in order based upon their current serviceability. Although Engine 134 is not the oldest engine in the fleet, the component assessment, maintenance and repair costs and current general poor operating condition suggests moving it ahead in the replacement schedule.
A fleet capital plan should be developed to begin programming replacements for large apparatus based upon industry standards and score card results. According to the industry standard, Engine 133 already exceeds the industry standard for first line service and should be retired in 2022. Engine 132 should be taken out of first line service in 2023 and should be retired in 2028. The town has guidelines for replacement schedules for the command vehicle and two utility vehicles.
It is recommended that the department maintain the Vehicle Score Card System used in this study, or some similar process to help manage a fleet replacement and capital program.

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Interactive Map of Raleigh Fire Stations Past and Present

Posted by Mike Legeros on 11 February 2020, 7:31 am

For your Tuesday enjoyment, here’s a new interactive Google My Maps of Raleigh fire station locations past and present. Even includes pictures!

View the fire station map.

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Raleigh Run Numbers 2019

Posted by Mike Legeros on 1 February 2020, 1:30 pm

Here are totals for Raleigh Fire Departments unit runs and total calls last year. See prior years, from 1993 to 2019, in this PDF document.

Total Calls – 44,661
Total Runs – 64,753

Runs by Unit

E1 – 1,849
E2 – 2,248
E3 – 2,604
E4 – 1,404
E5 – 1,358
E6 – 1,198
Squad 7 – 2,472
E8 – 2,233
E9 – 2,234
E10 – 1,902
E11 – 2,159
E12 – 2,517
E13 – 1,681
Squad 14 – 1,875
E15 – 2,706
E16 – 1,998
E17 – 1,369
E18 – 1,202
E19 – 2,793
E20 – 1,709
E21 – 1,950
E22 – 1,463
E23 – 858
E24 – 1,012
E25 – 920
E26 – 1,105
E27 – 845
E28 – 1,021
E29 – 311

L1 – 1,066
L2 – 1,904
L3 – 1,158
L4 – 2,409
L5 – 514
L6 – 386
L7 – 1,123
L8 – 1,696
L9 – 462

Rescue 1 – 1,165

Battalion 1 – 502
Battalion 2 – 598
Battalion 3 – 544
Battalion 4 – 409
Battalion 5 – 854

Car 20 – 147 (Division Chief)

Car 401 – 10 (Investigators)
Car 402 – 260

Air 1 – 81
Air 2 – 73

Haz-Mat 1 – 64
Haz-Mat 2 – 61
Haz-Mat 3 – 72
Haz-Mat 4 – 30
Haz-Mat 5 – 62

Mini Pumper 1 – 18
Mini Pumper 2 – 12
Mini Pumper 3 – 19

USAR 801 – 13 (Swift Water / Technical Rescue)

Busiest Engines

2,793 – E19
2,706 – E15
2,604 – E3
2,517 – E12
2,472 – Squad 7
2,248 – E2
2,234 – E9
2,233 – E8
2,159 – E11
1,998 – E16

Busiest Ladders

2,409 – L4
1,904 – L2
1,696 – L8
1,158 – L3
1,123 – L7

Busiest Battalion Chief

Battalion 5 – 854

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Five-Hour Search For Downed Plane at Raleigh-Durham Airport, 1978

Posted by Mike Legeros on 29 January 2020, 7:10 pm

Found these plane crash photos from 1978 by Jim Thornton in the Herald-Sun photo collection at Wilson Library at UNC. Here’s the story behind them.

On Monday night, February 13, 1978, a twin-engine Aero Commander 600 approaching Raleigh-Durham Airport disappeared from radar at 8:00 p.m. Six souls were aboard. The plane apparently struck a tree and crashed about two-and-a-half miles southwest of Runway 5-23. And though it crashed just a few hundred yards south of Interstate 40, it took rescuers almost five hours to find the two survivors.

The aircraft crashed at 8:02 p.m., reported the NTSB, and into a “swampy area” south of the airport. Upon impact, it also began transmitting an automatic distress signal.

Alerted to the possible plane crash, the airport fire department responded and with their new full-time personnel. RDU CFR had recently hired thirteen new people to provide full-time staffing during the hours that commercial flights were arriving and departing. This was a significant upgrade of the airport’s crash-fire-rescue capabilities, and ended improvements started in summer of 1976, after unfavorable news stories began asking uncomfortable questions about the airport’s emergency response capabilities.

Prior to the department’s overhaul, RDU firefighters also had other airport support duties, notably performing refueling operations for private airplanes. There were questions of adequacy of training, staffing, and equipment. Among the improvements in late 1977 and early 1978 included a new ARFF crash truck, a new quick-response unit with a dry chemical skid system, and new communications and radio equipment. The chief of department was Terry Edmundson, former Fire Chief of Cary.

Read more about RDU CFR history at www.legeros.com/ralwake/rdu/timeline.shtml. See historical photos from that era at www.flickr.com/p…/raleighfiremuseum/albums/72157691054681296

Hundreds of Searchers

Back to the night of February 13. Mutual aid to the incident was extensive, with what one newspaper called “virtually every volunteer [responder] and emergency unit in the area.” That included Morrisville FD, Parkwood FD, Cary FD, Yrac FD, Durham Highway FD, Cary Rescue, Parkwood Rescue, Wake County EMS, Durham EMS, the State Highway Patrol, Wake County SO, Durham County SO, and the Civil Air Patrol.

As was the airport’s standard operating procedure, they notified the Civil Air Patrol, which launched a search plane. However, the search plane couldn’t fly low enough to pinpoint the crash site. Also, the search plane’s automatic distress beacon inadvertently began transmitting, and caused confusion.

The Coast Guard was contacted and sent a helicopter from Elizabeth City. It located the crash site from the downed craft’s homing beacon around 11:50 p.m. [ Let’s guess 60 to 80 minutes flying time from Elizabeth City to Morrisville. ]

By the time the helicopter had located the crash site, some 300 searchers were participating, including private citizens who joined after hearing about the crash on their CB radio. But the searchers had been hampered by fog and swampy, wooden terrain. Reported one account, the terrain was wet and icy, and rescuers walked in water ranging from knee to waist high.
Once the helicopter located the wreckage, a command post for all search parties was established “on the highway.” [ Was that on the Interstate 40? Or on Airport Road or Sorrell’s Grove Road? ]

Wreckage Found

About an hour later, members of the search party spotted the plane. It was found about 12:50 a.m. There were two survivors, adult males, one of whom was found wandering several hundred yards from the crash site either ten minutes before or after, depending upon the news report.

He was admitted to Wake Memorial Hospital for severe frostbite on both legs and multiple abrasions and cuts. He had apparently been thrown from the plane as it fell.

The other survivor was found pinned inside the airplane, which reportedly crashed upside down at full-power. He was treatment for multiple abrasions and a cervical fracture. The other four adult males aboard died of massive injuries, reported the assistant state medical examiner.

News accounts noted that at least $20,000 was found in the wreckage, along with about two pounds of marijuana, and a “small quantity of powdery substance.” The six men aboard were most (or maybe all?) in their twenties. The plane was travelling from Bedford, MA, to Monroe, NC.

Disaster Plan Needs Update

Three weeks later, the News & Observer published some after-action accounts of the incident. The rescue crews had used the airport’s “forty-page disaster plan” for the incident. However, as the newspaper noted, the document contained “scant references to searching for a downed plane.” Instead, it “merely suggested calling for search planes from Civil Air Patrol, Coast Guard, or military.”

The Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority passed a resolution the prior week, calling for a search plan to be written and coordinated with the disaster plans of Wake County Civil Preparedness office. However, the county plan also didn’t include preparations for downed planes [outside of the airport]. Noted Director Russell Capps, they were considering adding that to their plan.

Why didn’t the airport’s disaster plan include instructions for searching off-property? Because the FAA required that disaster plans be limited to incidents on airport property. The limits were imposed because the FAA recognized that some airports disagree with adjoining communities, over who takes charge when a plane crashes near the boundaries of an airport.

And there were other issues cited by the newspaper. When any plane fails to land, the control tower notifies Civil Air Patrol, which “sends off” a search plane. But because CAP isn’t requested by RDU-CFR, the two groups don’t coordinate. Radio interoperability was also an issue, with RDU-CFR unable to talk to sheriff’s departments participating in the search and could only communicate indirectly with search planes via the control tower.

And then what happened? To be determined. This is where our story ends for today.

Jim Thorton photos, February 15, 1978. From Box 1_04_55, in the folder Aircraft Accidents, in the Durham Herald Company Newspaper Photograph Collection #P0105, North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Sources include:

Durham Sun, February 14, 1978
Durham Sun, February 16, 1978
News & Observer, February 14, 1978
News & Observer, February 15, 1978
News & Observer, February 16, 1978
News & Observer, March 6, 1978.

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Trench Rescue at Brier Creek – January 15, 2020

Posted by Mike Legeros on 18 January 2020, 7:19 am

These notes were originally posted on Facebook, after a trench rescue incident on Wednesday, January 15, 2020. See more photos from Mike Legeros in this SmugMug album.

Incident

Dispatched 11:03 a.m. Gas station construction site at 4209 Corners Parkway, near intersection of Glenwood Avenue and TW Alexander Drive. Below grade earth collapse trapping four workers.
One self-rescued and two were rescued by responders. The second worker was removed soon after air readings showed safe conditions for rescuer entry. The second worker was removed about 11:45 a.m.
The third worker–reportedly trapped up to his waist–required a longer operation, including assistance from a City of Raleigh Public Works vacuum truck that arrived about 12:10 p.m. The third worker was extricated about 12:35 p.m.
Two of the workers were transported to Duke University Hospital. Their conditions were reportedly non life-threatening.
Crews continued working at the scene into the afternoon, to locate the missing fourth worker. Though, as news stories noted, their pace was slower, as a precaution to protect the rescuers. The fourth worker was recovered, deceased, about 4:15 p.m.

Response

Location was inside the Durham city limits, but just inside Wake County. [ Initial dispatch assignments go here. ]
Raleigh sent a full technical rescue assignment: Rescue 1, Squad 7 and 14, Engine 17, Ladder 3, USAR 801, Battalion 5. Plus special call for the two new trench rescue trailers. (In addition to the nearby closest engine and ladder, at Station 24.)
Durham’s technical rescue assignment consisted of [ goes here ]. And, of notable note, Raleigh Rescue 1 and Durham’s newly reactivated Rescue 1 were working side-by-side.
Fire command by Durham Battalion _. Rescue branch command by [ goes here ]. EMS command by Wake County EMS Chief 200, then Chief 102.
EMS resources responded from both Durham and Wake County, including major incident support units from both (MIRV 1 and Truck 1).

Other

Units staged at various locations around the incident site, including the parking lot of Harris Teeter for medical and some unit staging.
News helicopters were overhead. See those stories for aerial footage and images.
Legeros arrived about 11:40 a.m. See his pictures in this album.

Run Card

Durham Fire