This is a blog version of an earlier Facebook posting.
Found in my files. Twenty years ago last month, a burgeoning fire historian (and future blogger) was feeling his way around this thing called the Wake County Fire Commission.
This is a blog version of an earlier Facebook posting.
New chart, high-level history of fire service governance in Wake County.
Source are these lengthy research notes (PDF).
See also this history chart of all Wake County fire departments.
This is a blog version of an earlier Facebook posting.
We recently received and digitized a pair of program books from the Great American Firehouse Exposition and Muster South, held in Charlotte in May 1988 and May 1989. Both are fabulous snapshots of the late eighties fire service. They were gifted by a fellow history fan, attending the South Atlantic Fire Rescue Expo in Raleigh this month.
See parade photos by Sid Bragg, from the 1988 event.
Sunday Events
On May 2, 1988, the Charlotte Observer printed a schedule of the events on Sunday, the last day of the expo. It noted that more than 3000 firefighters from eleven southern states were expected to attend. The event was sponsored by Firehouse Communications Inc., publishers of Firehouse Magazine and Chief Fire Executive.
These events on Sunday, May 8, were open to the public:
Then What Happened?
It appears that “Firehouse South” was held in Charlotte for only those two years.
Clippings From 1988
Clippings From 1989
The Wake County Fire Commission will hold a regular meeting on Thursday, July 13, 2023, at 6:00 p.m., at the Wake County Emergency Services Education Center, 221 S. Rogers Lane, Raleigh, NC 27610.
View agenda and meeting documents.
The first fire department building in Wrightsville Beach was located in the 400 block of Waynick Boulevard, along with the police department, town hall, and coast guard station.
1961 photo
US Coast Guard Archives, Washington D.C.
WBFD photo
Wilmington Sanborn Map, 1955
Low Profile Engines
Richard Adelman Collection photo.
This 1964 Ford/Seagrave, 500 GPM, was designed with no warning lights on the roof, due to the low height of the engine bay. It was followed with a 1973 Ford/Howe, 750 GPM.
Second Station Opened
WBFD photo.
A second fire station was opened in 1972.
Fire Department Relocates
Two buildings housed the fire department, beginning with this warehouse in 1983.
Google photo
The fire department relocated in 1986 to the larger warehouse on Seawater Lane. The building was used until the public safety center was erected in 2010.
Google photo
Sherman Gillespie photo
The current fire station, part of a larger public safety center, opened on the grounds of the municipal complex in 2010.
Stewert-Cooper-Newell Architects photo
Sources
Two alarms were struck in Raleigh on Thursday, June 16, 2023, at a challenging high-life hazard structure fire at 1810 N. New Hope Road, at an assisted living facility. One-story brick and frame structure with 30,567 square-feet. Built 2001. Dispatched 2:49 p.m. EMS unit already on scene for another call reported smoke showing to the units en route.
Engine 21 was the first to arrive and found an exterior fire in the rear of the structure with extension into the attic. Initially marked under control about 3:15 p.m., there were extended operations for extinguishment, due to the difficulty accessing the attic spaces. No aerial streams, all interior ops. Engine 12 had the first water supply. Lines were all pulled from Engine 21.
Photo credits, top to bottom, left to right: Raleigh Professional Fire Fighters Association (via Facebook), ABC11, WRAL, Raleigh Fire Department (via Facebook).
On the medical side, the incident required the initial evacuation (and some transports) of 52 residents from one wing of the building, and subsequently the complete evacuation of the facility. Wake County EMS EVAC 1 was special-called along with GO RALEIGH bus, to both provide shelter for the evacuees and transport to other facilities for relocation. The high heat/humidity conditions also meant more intensive rehab for the crews.
The second alarm for fire was dispatched just minutes into the incident, with later special called units for additional manpower. EMS requested a second alarm at the start of the incident and numerous later additional units. Fire staging had a couple locations, the final of which were the northbound lanes of New Hope Road. Medical staging was in the parking lot of an adjoining apartment complex. See below map.
Crew were on scene for over five hours. Scene was cleared about 8:14 p.m.
Run Card
Fire
Medical
Incident Map
Here’s a chart of milestones of the Raleigh Fire Department, created in 2013 for the Raleigh Fire Museum.
This is a blog version of a Facebook posting from April 2021.
New from the Legeros History Labs. Each and every iteration of city fire stations with multiple versions. Plus the training tower and shop. Plus pics of all the one-and-done (to date) stations.
See other visual histories
This is an updated version of a blog archives posting from April 2011.
Let’s go back in time to 1976, when city and county officials were working to provide a better level of emergency medical service to residents of Raleigh and its suburban areas outside the city limits. Funeral homes hadn’t transported patients for about a decade. Various private ambulance companies had come and gone. The current provider for Raleigh residents was Beacon Ambulance Service, operating under that name since 1969. They also answered calls in the county.
The Raleigh Fire Department rescue squad– now with two units, since 1975– also transported patients in a pinch and notably when Beacon units were unavailable. But neither fire nor ambulance personnel were providing much in the way of advanced first aid. The First Responder program was still a few years away, as well.
Outside of the city, there were community rescue squads operating in Apex, Cary, Wake Forest, Wendell, and Zebulon. Some of those had been around for over a decade; others were fairly new. Six Forks Rescue Squad started that year, in 1976. They were staffed with volunteer members.
Beacon had been receiving a subsidy from the county and had asked for an increase in 1975. That and other issues had both city and county officials considering their options for the best combination ambulance and medical service for Raleigh residents. Thus the proposed Rescue Medic program, a city-county initiative to add Emergency Medical Technician-staffed ambulances to the Raleigh Fire Department.
It proposed creating four two-person medic units that would be housed at four fire stations: Station 1, Station 10, Station 6/14, and Station 4/15. The fire department’s two rescue squads would be housed at Station 2 and Station 9. And their response areas would include some territory outside the city limits.
The proposal was created for the Wake County Office of Emergency Management. Staffing, equipment, response projections, alternate models, it’s all here. The plan was not adopted, of course. The county instead created its own EMS agency that year.
Read the Rescue Medic proposal (PDF)
Read detailed research on the history of Wake County EMS including all about ambulance and EMS service in Raleigh (PDF).
Read about the history of Raleigh’s rescue units (PDF)
This is a work in progress
Here’s a database of fire apparatus built by Emergency Equipment Inc. (EEI) in Raleigh, NC, as compiled by Jon Umbdenstock of Durham, NC.
More Information
For more about EEI and its predecessors Atlas Steel and Alexander Welding, read these research notes.
See also the Facebook group EEI/Atlas Fire Apparatus.
