From the Coastland Times, Jan. 6, 1956, via Dare County Digital Heritage, and their extensive (and searchable!) archives of old newspapers.
No other details.
Facebook Comments
Christmas Day Blaze Guts Business Block – Boone, 1952
Front page of the Watauga Democrat, January 1, 1953. Via the nifty North Carolina Newspapers site.
Read this and other issues at https://www.digitalnc.org/newspapers/watauga-democrat-boone-n-c.
Facebook Comments
Wake County Fire Commission Meeting Audio
FYI, audio recordings from each Wake County Fire Commission meeting are now posted online, and just a couple days after each meeting[1]. They’re super-easy to find. Go to the official web page. Drill down under Minutes. And you’re there.
[1] These may have been available for a while now, on the web. Since Mr. Blogger’s usually there in person, he hasn’t needed the recorded version.
Facebook Comments
Code Word for Mutual Aid, Brock – 1953
Back in the day, code words were used when requesting mutual aid from neighboring towns and cities. This was done to verify the authenticity of the requestor. The concept was first proposed at the 1950 conference of the North Carolina State Firemen’s Association. And enacted that year (I believe, need to check).
By the time of the 1953 conference, the code word was in-effect and members were asked by Statistician Albert Brinson (yes, related) to suggest a new word for next year. “Brock” was chosen, in memory of the great Sherwood Brockwell, the state’s first fire marshal (among many roles), and who passed away that year.
Recorded in the proceedings for the 1953 convention, President “Moon” Wyrick declared: “Whenever your Chief or whomever you designate, the Mayor, Board of Commissioners or Board of Aldermen, […] need mutual aid one among another, [they] will use the signal ‘BROCK’.”
Sources: Proceedings of the North Carolina State Firemen’s Association, 1950, 1953.
Facebook Comments
North Carolina State Firemen’s Conference Proceedings, 1896
The North Carolina fire service is quite old, and goes all the way back the late 1700s. Artifacts from earlier eras are harder to come by, and anything pre-1900 is a bonafide find. Thus it’s a hysterical historical pleasure to share some early conference proceedings from the North Carolina State Firemen’s Association, from August 1896.
The 120-page document (see web directory, click 1896, beware large file size) is brimming with goodies, including stats on the member fire departments, tournament scores, vintage advertisements, and even a picture of Greensboro’s Eagle Hose Company’s “daughter”.
Scanned from the physical document, which is cataloged at Wilson Library at UNC-Chapel Hill. They have proceedings from various years between 1896 and 1957.
Facebook Comments
Wake County Fire Commission Meeting – January 17, 2019
The Wake County Fire Commission met last night on Thursday, January 17, 2019. The meeting was held at the Wake County Emergency Services Education Center, 221 S. Rogers Lane, Raleigh.
Read the agenda packet, which includes correspondence to the Fire Services Director concerning the Fairview Station 2 closure concept, discussed in prior meetings. It was requested that those letters be included in the public record of meeting minutes.
Agenda
Meeting Called to Order: Chairman Keith McGee
- Invocation
- Pledge of allegiance
- Roll of Members Present
Items of Business
- Adoption of Minutes for November 15, 2018 Regular Meeting
- Annual Election of Chairman and Vice Chairman – Nick Campasano
- Approval of Agenda
Public Comments:
- Comments from the public will be taken at this time. Members of the public are invited to make
comment to the Commission, with a maximum of 3 minutes per person. A signup sheet for those
who wish to speak during the public comments section of the meeting is located at the entrance of
the meeting room.
Regular Agenda
- Northern Wake Position Conversion
- South Region Appointments
Information Agend
- Fire Tax Financial Report
- Standing Committee Updates
- Administrative
- Apparatus
- Budget
- Communications
- Equipment
- Facility
- Staffing and Compensation
- Steering
- Training
- Volunteer Recruitment & Retention Committee
- Chair Report
- Fire Services Director Report
Other Business
Adjournment – Next Meeting March 21, 2019
Facebook Comments
Relocating Fire Station 12 – Dedication on January 16
January 18, 2019
Photos posted of the dedication ceremony:
January 13, 2019
The City of Raleigh is dedicating new Fire Station 12 on Wednesday, January 16, at 1:00 p.m. It’s located at 4306 Poole Road, about a mile east of old Station 12. It’s also the largest of the city’s twenty-nine fire stations, with over 18,000 square feet. This dedication was original scheduled in September, but was postponed due to Hurricane Florence, and preparations for its impacts in Raleigh.
Here’s a brief press release.
See also Legeros photos of the new station, its construction, and the old station and its history.
Lee Wilson photo
Continue reading ‘Relocating Fire Station 12 – Dedication on January 16’ »
Facebook Comments
Tarboro Fireman Dies From Illness After Fire – 1899
Note: This is a version of a posting from Legeros Fire Line on Facebook. See that posting for reader comments and discussion.
Found a reference to a Tarboro Fire Department firefighter fatality, and apparently duty-related. From the Proceedings of the North Carolina State Firemen’s Convention in 1899, page 26, from the Secretary’s Report:
“Death has again invaded our ranks. This time one of our former treasurers has been taken. Died February 16th, 1899, Chas. G. Bradley, of Tarboro Hook and Ladder Company. Death was caused by severe illness, contracted by being wet and overheated attending a fire a week or more before death.”
This makes one of the state’s oldest line-of-duty deaths, after three Asheville firemen were killed in 1891, in a train derailment, while returning from the state firemen’s convention in Durham.
Next steps, to learn more about the Tarboro fireman? Suggest these sources for additional information:
- Genealogy sites to find the death certificate, if it’s available. Such as Ancestry via subscription or your local library. Or Family Search, which has free accounts.
- Tarboro newspaper articles, from back in the day. Good source for those are the online resources from the North Carolina Government and Heritage web site. But you’ll need a library card, to use those news sources.
- Digital North Carolina Newspapers, also as a source for news stories.
- Find-a-Grave.
Physical resources could include town minutes, if any are surviving from that era. Check with the town clerk. Copies of surviving newspapers are another possibility. Check local/area libraries. Maybe also the university.
Good luck!
Below is a screen grab of conference proceedings, scanned from physical copy at Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Facebook Comments
Raleigh Run Numbers – 2018
Here are totals for Raleigh Fire Departments unit runs and total calls last year…
Total Calls – 42,157
Total Runs – 62,033
E1 – 1,983
E2 – 1,830
E3 – 2,668
E4 – 1,249
E5 – 1,305
E6 – 882
Sq7 – 2,400
E8 – 2,070
E9 – 1,834
E10 – 1,689
E11 – 2,735
E12 – 2,622
E13 – 1,431
Sq14 – 1,600
E15 – 2,539
E16 – 1,963
E17 – 1,345
E18 – 1,178
E19 – 2,556
E20 – 1,713
E21 – 1,699
E22 – 1,478
E23 – 831
E24 – 927
E25 – 940
E26 – 1,058
E27 – 796
E28 – 794
E29 – 343
Special – Hurricane Matthew
E106 – 8
E110 – 11
E118 – 9
E129 – 3
L1 – 952
L2 – 2,041
L3 – 1,147
L4 – 2,300
L5 – 1,106
L6 – 417
L7 – 1,076
L8 – 1,007
L9 – 272
R1 – 1,281
B1 – 542
B2 – 664
B3 – 544
B4 – 325
B5 – 853
C20 – 141 (Platoon Division Chief)
Car 401 – 15 (Chief Fire Investigator, special called)
Car 402 – 188 (Fire Investigator)
Air 1 – 91
Air 2 – 89
HM1 – 83 (haz-mat)
HM2 – 101
HM3 – 77
HM4 – 41
HM5 – 84
MP1 – 25 (mini-pumpers)
MP2 – 12
MP3 – 10
USAR 801 – 25 (swift water rescue)
Busiest Engines
E11 – 2,735
E3 – 2,668
E12 – 2,622
E19 – 2,556
E15 – 2,539
Sq7 – 2,400
E8 – 2,070
E1 – 1,983
E16 – 1,963
E9 – 1,834
Busiest Ladders
L4 – 2,300
L2 – 2,041
L3 – 1,147
Busiest Battalion Chief
B5 – 853
Busiest Rescue (ha)
R1 – 1,281
Facebook Comments
Greensboro’s South Side Hose Company in 1899
Found this this weekend. Vintage photo of Greensboro’s South Side Hose Company in 1899. They were the winners annual state firemen’s tournament Championship Reel Race. The winning times were:
- 49 sec – Greensboro, South Side Hose Co. No. 4
- 50 1/4 – New Bern Steam Fire Engine Co. No. 1
- 51 sec. – Goldsboro, Hose Co. No. 1
- 51 sec. – Salem, Eagle Hose Co. No. 4
- 54 sec. – Chicora, Fayetteville
Salisbury Hose Co. competed, was was ruled out. Eagle Hose Co. No. 7 of Greensboro withdrew, in favor of South Side.
The winning team was awarded the championship belt, to hold and display until the next year’s tournament. They also won $125 prize. The second place team won $75.
The contest consisted of members pulling a hand hose reel, running (pulling) and laying hose from a fire hydrant, connecting the hose to the hydrant, removing the other end of the hose from the reel, attaching a nozzle to the hose, and flowing water in the fastest time possible.
Distance they ran? Either 50 or 150 yards, based on the race. Can’t quite tell which one.
Pictured in the proceedings of that year’s North Carolina State Firemen’s Convention annual convention and tournament, bound copies of which are cataloged at Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina.
Facebook Comments