From a report received around June 1, 1957, and probably covering the prior fiscal year.

Rural fire departments established in ten communities in Wake County:

• Zebulon
• Apex
• Cary
• Garner
• Fuquay-Varina
• Morrisville
• Knightdale
• Wake Forest
• Six Forks
• Wendell.

Others are in the process of organizing, and some are about ready to begin purchasing equipment. These departments have 242 volunteer members and “are rendering the people of the county a service that cannot be estimated in dollars and cents.”

Summary of calls of the nine departments that have been operating the longest (all of the above, except Wendell):

• 241 fires fought
• 20 industrial and business buildings
• 62 dwellings and outhouses
• 44 grass and woods fires
• 44 autos and trucks
• 15 tobacco barns
• 65 other types of fires.

Value of property:

• $223,010 worth of property destroyed
• $350,500 worth of property that was on fire, and saved
• $549,200 worth of property that was adjacent, and would have burned

One life saved. Plus a “large variety of community services” also performed by “these men.”

Source: Resolution adopted by Wake County Commissioners on June 3, 1957, and as presented to Col. David L. Hardee, director of Organizations For Civil Defense in Raleigh.