Remembering the Fire Station at Memorial Auditorium

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Did you know that Memorial Auditorium once contained a fire station? The performance hall that’s today called the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts was dedicated in August 1932 as “War Memorial Auditorium.” It was named as it was a memorial to the solders that died in World War I, and replaced the earlier City Auditorium at Davie and Fayetteville streets, that was destroyed by fire on October 24, 1930.

As this NC Theater web site well-summarizes, the land for the new auditorium had a long history of public use. The city’s original Governor’s Palace was erected on the site in 1813 and occupied until April 1865, when seized by General Sherman during the Civil War. (As the story goes, it was declared no longer fit for habitation after the war ended.) In 1876, the building was sold to the city, and turned into Raleigh’s first public school. (And the second graded school in the state.)


Source: NC Theater web page

Memorial Auditorium cost about $310,000 to construct, and was considered the city’s largest expense since the Great Depression. It also included a fire station under the stage. The one-story, two-bay fire station faced Fayetteville Road. It originally housed Engine 2, which relocated from 412 S. Salisbury Street. (The old fire station was retained by the city and became a paint shop.)

The new fire station included separate dorm rooms for officers and firefighters. There was a “lounge” in the far back, a combination kitchen, dining room, and a day room. A maintenance shop was located in the rear of the apparatus bay. The floor plan also included bathrooms, an office, and a utility closet.

Click once or twice to enlarge:


Top right: North Carolina State archives photo; bottom left: Raleigh News & Observer

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Two Alarms on Pumpkin Ridge Way on Saturday

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Two alarms were struck in northeast Raleigh late Saturday afternoon, with two duplexes damaged after an accidental outdoor fire started. Engine 21 was dispatched 2420 Pumpkin Ridge Way at 5:21 p.m. for an outside fire. Within a minute it was upgraded with a structure fire response dispatched at 5:22 p.m. and adding E27, E11, E19, L2 (operating reserve Ladder 125), L8, R1, B1, B2, and Car 420 (Deputy Fire Marshal). While units were en route, it was upgraded to a working fire, with Air 1, Car 20 (Division Chief), and Car 401 (Investigator) dispatched at 5:26 p.m.

Engine 21 arrived at 5:28 p.m., with smoke and flames showing from the left side (Division B) and extending to the attic of a two-story, brick duplex with ~2000 square feet. Built 2001. The officer requested a second alarm almost immediately, as a second structure became involved, with siding catching fire and soon extending to the attic at 2424 Pumpkin Ridge Way. That’s a two-story, vinyl-sided duplex with ~2,8000 square feet. Built 2003.


Benjamin James Cirasole / WTVD photos

The second alarm was dispatched at 5:29 p.m. for E12, Sq7, E3, L5, L4, B5. The Assistant Chief of Operations, Car 2, also responded. Initial operations were interior attacks along with a “blitz nozzle” (portable monitor) outside in the front. Ladder 2 was positioned for master stream operations in Division B/C on Pumpkin Ridge Way, while Ladder 8 was readied in Division C, on the parallel street Blackwolf Run Lane. Evacuation tones were sounded at 5:43 p.m., crews were withdrawn from both structures, and both aerial streams began flowing.


Mike Legeros photos

Command was located on the south side of the intersection of Pumpkin Ridge and Linville Ridge Drive. Staged apparatus utilized Linville Ridge Drive and Bay Harbor Drive. At least two hydrants were tapped. Medical monitoring and rehab was conducted in driveways on Pumpkin Ridge, across the street from Division B/C. The fire was controlled at 6:44 p.m., and some second alarm companies were soon released.

The cause was determined as accidental, due to smoking materials, and presumably improperly discarded. Watch your butts! Three families were displaced, and Red Cross provided assistance. One pet was reportedly killed.


Mike Legeros photos

Fire response included E21, structure fire: E27, E11, E19, L2, L8, R1, B1, B2, C420; working fire: A1, C20, 401; second alarm: E12, Sq7, E3, L5, L4, B5. Also C2. Medical response: EMS 34 (first alarm), EMS 62, D9 (working fire), EMS 63, D6, M92, T1 (second alarm).

Early-incident photos by Benjamin James Cirasole were posted to this WTVD story. Legeros arrived about 5:47 p.m. See his photos.

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Old Fire Protection Systems at Old Hillsborough Mill

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See prior posting about the fire.

On Friday, May 20, a historic mill building burned in Hillsborough. Eight fire departments battled the late afternoon blaze. The “weaving room” was destroyed on the former site of Bellevue Manufacturing Company, an industrial property built beginning in the 1900s-1920s. It was last occupied in 2000.

The site was originally equipped with its own water supply and fire hydrants. The town didn’t have one, so the factory furnished its own. This was common at industrial as well as institutional sites (schools, hospitals, prisons) back in the day.

Crews on Friday or later visitors to the scene likely noticed such features as old hydrants, old hose cabinets, and old post-indicator valves:

Poke around the entire property and you’ll see numerous fire protection features. Photographed these in February, when Mrs. Blogger and myself had dinner at the nearby barbecue joint:

Here’s a wider view showing the hose reel in the center, and another post-indicator valve in center left:

These 1924 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map excerpts (with annotations) reveal more detailed information about the buildings and their fire systems.

Click once or twice to enlarge:

2016-05-27-mill-map2a2016-05-27-mill-map3a

For more information:

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Durham City, County – Proposed Budgets for FY17

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Here are the notable fire and EMS items in the recently announced budgets for the City of Durham and Durham County.

Durham City

– Add two fire inspector positions
– Completion of construction of replacement Fire Station 9
– Planning for 30 firefighters in FY18, to staff new Station 17 (Leesville Road)
– Planning for 15 firefighters in FY21, to staff new Station 18 (Herndon Road and Stinhurst Drive area.

More budget information.

Durham County

Fire:

– Add day-duty Division Chief position
– Add six firefighter positions

EMS:

– Five new full-time employees, for peak-time ambulance deployment shift
– Five Sprinter EMS ambulances, four new, one replacement
– One new bariatric ambulance
– Three large SUVs, two new, one replacement
– One new one-ton 4×4 truck.

More budget information (PDF).

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Cary’s Proposed Budget and a Bunch of Planned Fire Stations

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The Town of Cary the other week announced their proposed budget for FY17. Notable items for the fire department are:

  • Fire Station 9 on Walnut Street
  • New ladder company with thirteen positions for northwest side of town (probably Station 7)
  • New ladder truck, for above new company
  • Replacement pumper.

Recall this recent Cary News story[*]  about Cary’s plans for Station 9 and Station 10, which tells more about project. Also, Engine 9 is already in service, operating from old Station 2 on Maynard Road. Read prior blog posting. 

[*] Link now broken, http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/community/cary-news/article70710862.html

Land for Station 10 has already been purchased at 2495 O’Kelly Chapel Road, in Chatham County. From the budget document (under Capital Improvements), funding for the project is planned for FY20 ($750K) and FY21 ($7M).

And Five More Future Locations

The budget documents also lists locations for five (!) more future locations, however they’re all planned for funding between FY22 and FY27:

  • Station 11 – White Oak Church Road
  • Station 12 – West Lake/Middle Creek
  • Station 13 – Lewter Shop Road at Highway 751
  • Station 14 – Pleasant Grove Church Road at the airport.
  • Station 15 – Ernest Jones Road and Mt. Pisgah Church Road.

Side note: Funding for Station 11 land is already approved. Land acquisition is underway. Land for Station 12 is already owned by the town, it’s part of the Middle Creek school and park property off Optimist Farm Road.

These are far-future forecasts, so be careful. They’re five to ten years forward, which means many things can change. The planned locations may move, the priorities for building one ahead of the other may shift, etc. But it’s a good peek into station planning and how the Cary Fire Department is keeping ahead of expected service demand.

Side note: Planning documents are just that. Back in the day, Raleigh anticipated growth on Highway 401, south of Highway 70. But the city never grew in that direction. More recently, Raleigh’s next fire station was expected further east on Buffaloe Road. But needs have placed planned Station 30 as an infill station, instead, in north Raleigh.

Here’s a map that plots those locations along with current stations. What other municipal and county fire station changes will we see, over the next ten years? To be continued!

Meanwhile, let’s get our map[s] on. Click once or twice to enlarge:

2015-05-26-cfda

2016-05-26-cfd-map2a

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Historic Mill Building Burns in Hillsborough – Recap, Run Card, etc.

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Updates: See later posting about site – See site photos from February – Video clip added:

View on YouTube

Apologies for belated posting!

Fire destroyed a portion of a historic mill building in Hillsborough on Friday evening. Orange Rural Fire Department, which protects the town, was dispatched along with mutual aid at 4:54 p.m. Location of 202 S. Nash Street, the former Bellevue Manufacturing Company textile mill. Arriving units found the northernmost section of four buildings showing heavy fire through the roof. Aerial streams, deck guns, portable monitors, and hand lines were deployed.


Top to bottom, left to right: FireNews.net photo (x2), WTVD photo, Town of Hillsborough photo

ORFD Ladder 1 (which is town-owned and thus lettered Hillsborough Fire Department) was deployed on Nash Street, and then relocated to a rear parking lot. Mebane Platform 38 was backed against the Nash Side of the building adjoining the burn building. (Was told it’s the first fire for the recently delivered KME mid-mount platform.) There was also a Chapel Hill ladder on scene, but it wasn’t deployed. A company of firefighters (Tower 73) responded with a reserve quint, a 2001 HME rear-mount short stick.

Portable monitors were deployed on the north side of the building, from an elevated ground position at roof-level, and from the west side of the structure, on the northwest corner. Exposure protection was also paramount, due to occupied commercial structures on the south end of the block (past the mill buildings) and residential structures (and a historic mill house) directly to the north. The inward collapse of the fire building’s roof aided this effort. The roof collapsed at about 5:25 p.m.


Mike Legeros photos

Crews also attacked the blaze from inside the adjoining structure, a three-story section of the mill building. Both it and the burn building were unoccupied. The mill buildings were last occupied by a fabric company, which closed its operations there in September 2000. The buildings were planned for development into apartments. The mill is both a local and national historic landmark. Its buildings date from turn of the 20th Century and the early 1920s.


Mike Legeros photos

The destroyed structure was a 30,000 square-wood weaving room addition that was erected in 1920. Here’s a page of history [link expired: http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~orangecountync/places/cotton_mills/bvue.html] about the mill, and includes this diagram showing the sections of the building and their ages:

Eight fire departments were on scene: ORFD, Efland, Eno, New Hope, Orange Grove, Cedar Grove, Mebane, and Chapel Hill. How many firefighters? Good question! As many as a half-dozen hydrants were utilized, and included a special call to the town water plant, to boost pressure as needed. The fire was contained at 7:20 p.m. on Friday evening. All companies but a single ORFD crew were released about 10:30 p.m.

Crews continued working on Saturday, extinguishing hot spots and a large flare-up. The latter included a collapse of the building’s north wall against an embankment. Firefighters were working nearby, on a nearby hill. They were a safe distance from the structure, and weren’t affected. See the town’s press releases for ongoing details.

Readers can add additional information.

Run Card

  • Orange Rural – E231, E232, E233, L271, Squad 261, Tanker 241
  • Efland E132, E133, Tanker 143
  • Eno E331, Tanker 341
  • New Hope E431, Squad 461

Second alarm:

  • Orange Grove E533, Tanker 541
  • Cedar Grove Tanker 642, Tanker 643
  • Mebane Platform 38
  • Chapel Hill Reserve Ladder 73

Move ups:

  • White Cross to Orange Rural
  • Haw River to Efland
  • Prospect Hill to Cedar Grove
  • Durham County E85 to New Hope

EMS:

  • Medic 6, Medic 5
  • EMS 10
  • South Orange Rescue for rehab

Move ups:

Person County Medic 2 to Orange EMS, staged at US 70 and NC 86.

Stories and Pictures

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Vehicles vs. Buildings, Vehicles vs. Trains

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From the news files this week:

  • Thursday – Versus apartment building – Fox Ridge Manor Road, Raleigh – WRAL story
  • Thursday – Versus house – Lake Grove Boulevard, Cary – No injuries – WTVD story
  • Thursday – Versus freight train – S. Salem Street, Apex – Minor injuries – WTVD story
  • Sunday – Versus passenger train – Auburn-Knightdale Road, Garner – Minor injuries – WTVD story – Legeros photo

Wonder what one’s we missed, that weren’t covered by the news!?

Sunday’s story is particularly interesting, as the same driver had a collision at the same rail crossing two weeks earlier. She narrowly avoided being struck another train, but collided with a tree, which caused the front-end damage seen in the photo below.

Drive safety, folks.


WRAL, WTVD, WTVD, Legeros photos

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Vintage Photo of Foscoe Fire Department

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From their Facebook page, here’s a vintage photo of the Foscoe Fire Department in Watagua County. They were organized in 1971 and their first fire station was this one-story block ‘n’ brick building at 8599 Highway 105 South.

Twenty years later, they moved to a new fire station at 9230 Highway 105 South. In recent years, they opened a second fire station, at 120 Lance Trail in 2008. Learn more about FFD on their web site.

The original fire station building is still standing. It’s used as an antique store, and was photographed by Mr. Blogger in 2006 during a long weekend in October. There’s a larger two-bay building beside this one, and with an A-frame roof. Thinking it was probably either an expansion or replacement structure built by the fire department. Readers may know.


Mike Legeros photo

Google Street View photo

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City, County Proposed Budgets Announced – Details on Fire Spending

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Budgets have been proposed for both the city and county, for Fiscal Year 2016-2017. Here are details on the fire department and fire services expenditures:

City of Raleigh

Proposed budget presented to City Council on Tuesday.

Highlights:

  • Replace two engines and one ladder. [ Ed. note #1: Need more! Ed. note #2: Hearing it’s actually two ladders and one engine. ]
  • Move Station 1 and Headquarters out of warehouse district, with new facility built over three years.
  • Add two full-time positions: Deputy Fire Marshal and Senior Staff Support Specialist. The latter converts a part-time funded position.

Capital Projects:

  • Continued fire station renovation program ($6.5M over five years).
  • New Fire Station 1 and Administrative Offices ($23.9M over four years).

About the New HQ:

To meet the Fire Department’s operational and administrative needs, and to facilitate economic development efforts in the downtown Warehouse district, the CIP funds a replacement for Fire Station 1 and a replacement administrative space for Fire Department management staff. Staff tentatively expects to construct a new station up to 21,000 square feet, an administration space up to 13,000 square feet. The project budget also funds land acquisition and a parking deck. Depending on the site selected for the station, additional land and a parking deck may not be necessary in this case, the project budget will be decreased.

For context and perspective on the fire department’s facility planning, see their 2015-2020 Strategic Plan (PDF).

Other Public Safety:

New police training center, to be built on Battlebridge Road ($22.6M over three years). Pilot program for police to test body cameras ($1.5M). Add twelve positions to Central Communications Center, ten call takers and two supervisors.

See budget docs.

Wake County

Proposed budget presented to the Board of Commissioners on Monday.

Highlights:

  • Operating budget increased by 18 percent or $3.3M from last year, for Fire Tax District.
    • Attributed to 1.48 cent tax rate increase.
    • Added funding for implementation of a new cost-sharing funding formula ($1.67M)
    • Funding to improve salaries, based on a labor market study ($856,000).
    • Operating expansions at eight fire departments ($450,000)
    • System-wide expense for employee medical exam reimbursements ($200,000)
    • etc.
  • Planning and design costs for Wendell Falls Fire Station ($150,000).
    • Land has been acquired, will make inquiries on location.
    • Scheduled to be complete by 2021.
  • Replacement of ten vehicles and apparatus ($1.82M):
    • Bay Leaf Rescue 36 – 1991 E-One Cyclone heavy rescue
    • Durham Highway Pumper 3 – 1997 Pierce Dash, 1500/1000
    • Fairview Engine 8 – 1996 Pierce Dash, 1500/1000
    • Garner Engine 9 – 1994 Pierce Dash, 1000/1500
    • Holly Springs Engine 3 – 2007 Pierce, 1000/1000
    • Fuquay-Varina Tanker 2 – 1995 Freightliner/S&S, 450/1500
    • Morrisville Rescue 2 – 2000 Ford F-550 light rescue
    • Wake Forest Engine 4 [Former] – 1996 E-One, 1500/1000
    • Wake Forest Utility 5
    • Zebulon Car 1
  • Replacement of equipment ($3.5M):
    • 800mhz radio upgrade ($1.4M)
    • SCBA ($1.14M)
    • PPE ($675,000)
    • etc.

Some of this information is not contained in the budget, and was obtained from Wake County Fire Commission meeting documents, and as requested from Wake County Fire Services. Apparatus makes/models/years via Google and Legeros records.

See budget doc.

Other Public Safety:

Seven new full-time positions for Wake County EMS, six to expand the Advanced Practice Paramedic (APP) program (four paramedics to staff two 12-hour units and two supervisors to provide 24-hour management), and an Administrative Assistant to support EMS and Fire Services jointly. Funding to convert one ambulance from 24-hour to two 12-hour shifts.

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UPDATED – Chapel Hill Plans New Station 2 as Private/Public Partnership

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May 18
Chapelboro.com posted this story yesterday with a project update and a drawing. Town council will vote in June whether to approve the joint project, which will erect a fire station and four-story office building on South Hamilton Road.

2016-05-18-chfd

February 11
News out of Chapel Hill. Town Council on Monday approved the sale of Fire Station 2 to a developer, who will replace the facility with a four-story office building that includes a fire station on the ground level. And a two-story parking deck. Here are some details as gleaned from stories in the News & Observer[*] and ChapelBoro.com.

[*] Link now broken, http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/community/chapel-hill-news/article59320608.html

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