This is the third in a series of blog postings about Wake County EMS, and their celebration this year of their 40th anniversary. Read the first posting and second posting.
Wake County EMS – Then & Now
Comparing the trucks, the equipment, the medics, the call volume, the response areas, and more.
View the chart (PDF).
The South Atlantic FIRE RESCUE Expo moves to Charlotte this year (and next year). The annual golf tournament will be held on Monday, August 8, and Tuesday, August 9, at the Verdict Ridge Golf & Country Club in Denver, NC.
Shotgun start at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, and 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday. Plus practice rounds available Monday through Thursday that week. And a night of fellowship at the historic Charlotte Fire Department Palmer Building on Monday night, with food, drinks, annual drawings, and other prizes.
Tournament entry fee is $110. Registration deadline is August 1, 2016. See this flyer for more information. Visit the conference web site, for full details on the expo.
See you on the links!
The Raleigh Fire Department Golf Committee has announced their hosting of the 10th Annual Golf Tournament and Fundraiser to support the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF).
The tournament will be held on Monday, June 20, 2016, at Bentwinds Golf and Country Club in Fuquay-Varina. See this registration information.
And new this year, you can donate to the NFFF even if you don’t play in the tournament. Visit this web site to donate.
The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation needs your help more than ever before. In 1992, Congress created the NFFF. However, they did not allocate federal funding for the organization. Thus the Foundation survives on grants, donations, and corporate partners. In recent years, many NFFF grants have dissipated making donations more vital than ever. Please support this great organization.
How can you help?
Thank you for your support, for the families of our fallen brothers and sisters.
See this document for contact and event information.
From a blog reader (thanks Greg), High Shoals Fire Department in Gaston County changed their name last year to North Gaston Fire Department. They are Station 21 in the county system.
HSFD was incorporated as High Shoals Volunteer Fire Department Inc. on June 9, 1960. They changed their name to High Shoals Volunteer Fire and Rescue on January 27, 2009.
On August 26, 2015, they changed their name to North Gaston Volunteer Fire and Rescue. And again on October 9, 2015, to North Gaston Volunteer Fire and Rescue Inc.
From the department’s web site at http://firehouse21.com, they cover 16 square miles and 52 road miles in Gaston and Lincoln counties. They operate three engines (including a telesquirt), a tanker, a rescue, a brush truck, and a QRV.
Continue reading ‘High Shoals Fire > North Gaston Fire’ »
Our friends at the Cary Fire Department share these drawings of their new Engine 5, a 2016 Pierce Enforcer, 1500/500, that’s due in late summer. Features include:
Click once or twice to enlarge:
Here’s a montage of Wake County rescue squad ambulances, staged at Carter-Finley Stadium in the fall of 1986 and 1987. Larger versions of each have been posted to the History of EMS in Wake County page on Facebook. Look in the photo albums.
Top to bottom, left to right are trucks from Cary, Knightdale, Six Forks, Wendell, and Zebulon. They were taken by blog reader David Raynor.
The trucks are all Swab ambulances on assorted chassis. See this PDF document for info about Swabs in Wake County. Click once or twice to enlarge:
From the US National Weather Service Raleigh NC on Facebook:
The smoke plume from the fire at Pinnacle Apartments at Crabtree in North Raleigh Saturday afternoon was evident in radar imagery from both the National Weather Service Weather Surveillance Radar in Clayton (KRAX) and the FAA Terminal Doppler Weather Radar near RDU (TRDU). The radar loop shown here is from TRDU.
Here’s a screen capture:
On Monday night, April 4, 2016, on the eve of a certain championship basketball game, the Chapel Hill Fire Department faced a formidable challenge.
How to prepare for tens of thousands of people possibly swarming onto Franklin Street, and potentially starting fires or needing medical assistance? And while providing fire protection to the rest of the town during the same period?
They answered the challenge with a detailed incident action plan (IAP), and extensive mutual aid from neighboring city and county fire departments. And with a certain fire photographer in tow!
Their IAP divided the town into two operational divisions:
See more photos by Mike Legeros
Downtown
The downtown event area was defined as eight blocks of Franklin Street commercial and mixed-use residential district, with numerous restaurants and bars plus four blocks of Columbia Street, which add college buildings to the mix. Those were further divided into five sectors.
Each sector was assigned:
Foot teams were equipped with harness-mounted water extinguishers (left), and simple medical equipment.
Here’s your Monday morning treat. Vintage photos of public safety vehicles at North Carolina State University. They were taken by David Raynor in the 1980s. He’s a blog reader, fire buff, and former law officer who lived in Raleigh and Greensboro in his day.
We’ve shared some of his vintage pictures before, and will have more to come, thanks to some recent print scans of his. Thanks David! Click to enlarge:
David Raynor photos
Acknowledgements: Thanks to a bunch of folks, who helped me gather information as this incident was unfolding yesterday. It takes the proverbial village.
Two alarms were struck and many additional units were dispatched at an apartment fire early Saturday evening, located behind Crabtree Valley Mall. And alarming quite a few folks who saw the column of smoke rising from the area of the mall. Most of the state was under a “red flag” fire warning. In Raleigh on Saturday, the high was 52 degrees, with 10 mph winds during the day. Max wind speed was 25 mph, with 43 mph gusts. Dry conditions all around, with 0.35 inches of rainfall since April 1. Source.
Kirstyn Tedford / WRAL photo
Reported multi-residential structure fire at 5034 Edwards Mill Road. While units were en route, first-due Engine 16 reported seeing a smoke plume from Lead Mine Road, and then thick, black, pushing smoke, as they crossed Glenwood Avenue. Headquarters, meanwhile, dispatched a working fire assignment as well, due to multiple callers.
Engine 16 arrived at a two-story (on stilts), wood-frame, garden-style apartment building with twelve-units and 12,024 square-feet. Built in 1980 and “L shaped.” Was cited as “two buildings” in radio traffic. Entire building was “heavily involved in fire.”
Engine 16 connected to a hydrant upon arrival, and “laid in wet.” They deployed their portable monitor to the rear of the building, for a brief period of offensive operations. Within minutes, the first collapse of the building was observed on the “D” side. (They also observed fires on the ground advancing toward an adjacent building. Police officers assisted, bring a number of dry chemical extinguishers they located on premise, and helping to halt the spread on that side.)
The second alarm was requested within minutes, with a total of seven engines, two ladders, a rescue, and three battalion chiefs soon on scene. Command was located about halfway into the complex on the main road. Battalion 3, then Car 20, then Car 2 assumed command.
Ladder streams, ground monitors, and hand lines (including using a manifold valve) were deployed, and additional water supply sources were established. As well as alternate sources, as some of the hydrants were inadequate for pressure. Defensive operations were soon initiated, with crews protecting exposures from the fast-moving, wind-driven flames.
Sections of the building continued to quickly collapse. The entire structure was “on the ground” within an hour. Two passenger cars were also consumed, and a couple others were damaged by heat. Additionally, a tractor-trailer in the parking lot was also damaged.
See more photos from Mike Legeros