{"id":10757,"date":"2026-07-19T09:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T13:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/legeros.com\/blog\/?p=10757"},"modified":"2026-07-20T15:22:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T19:22:18","slug":"long-beach-rescue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/legeros.com\/blog\/long-beach-rescue\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Beach Rescue Squad History"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>This is a blog version of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/share\/p\/1Eq8QLHSa9\/\">Facebook posting<\/a> from September 10, 2022.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Early history of Long Beach Rescue Squad on Oak Island. From Wolfgang Furstenau&#8217;s 1995 book &#8220;Long Beach &#8211; A North Carolina Town: Its Origin and History,&#8221; from a copy in the collection of the North Carolina Heritage and Government Library in Raleigh.<\/p>\n<p>1962, Sep 15 &#8211; Long Beach FD created.<\/p>\n<p>1967, Nov 18 &#8211; Renamed Long Beach, N.C. Volunteer Fire Department Rescue Squad.<\/p>\n<p>1973, Jan 18 &#8211; Town commissioners approve separating rescue squad from the fire department.<\/p>\n<p>1973, Apr 19 &#8211; Long Beach Rescue Squad chartered. First officers Chief Walt Johnson, Captain Ted Casto, Lieutenant Charlie Leggett, Secretary\/Treasurer Nancy Leggett.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Equipment consisted of one ambulance, purchased in 1967, and a 17-foot McKee boat with 100 horsepower outboard motor.<\/li>\n<li>Prior to that, in Feb 1969, a three-acre tract of land was given to the rescue squad at the intersection of Route 211 and Long Beach Road.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>1973, Aug &#8211; Squad has 30 active members, 27 of which were certified ambulance attendants.<\/p>\n<p>1974, Apr 18 &#8211; New ambulance would be delivered in one week.<\/p>\n<p>1975, Apr 3 &#8211; Constitution revised to allow membership from all of Oak Island, providing they were residents for at least one year.<\/p>\n<p>1979, Jan 17 &#8211; Bid awarded for new ambulance, Grumman Emergency Products, $28,100 plus $120 in tax. Was a 1979 Grumman on Ford chassis. Certified to carry two patients. Squad paid $2,000 for equipment and $14,500 for vehicle. Town paid the rest.<\/p>\n<p>1979, Jul 1 &#8211; Town started Public Safety Officer Program, to train police officers in first aid, since they were often the first to arrive at the scene of an accident.<\/p>\n<p>1983, Jun 15 &#8211; Squad chief told town that they need $7,500 to assist in paying for two more ambulances, that were financed through a bank.<\/p>\n<p>1990, Jan &#8211; Fundraising efforts were continuous. At that time, members were planting grass to stabilize sand dunes, to help raise money. Town paid $18,000 for the work, which helped pay the remaining balance for a new $61,000 ambulance.<\/p>\n<p>1991 &#8211; Mutual aid agreement with Caswell Beach, in exchange for the town providing about 4 percent of the squad&#8217;s operating funds. Similar arrangement was made with Yaupon Beach.<\/p>\n<p>1994, Nov 1 &#8211; Squad had 26 members, of which 19 were certified EMT or better. Six had EMTD, three had EMTI, and three were trainees. Rest were ambulance attendant certified.<\/p>\n<p>Then what happened?<\/p>\n<p>David Robinson remembers &#8220;In 1998, I was one of 4 of the first career EMTs hired to supplement the volunteers with daytime coverage. In 1999 the town of Long Beach consolidated with Yaupon Beach to form the Town of Oak Island.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We continued providing daytime coverage until approximately 2005 when we [town employees] merged into the fire department to have full-time fire and EMS.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Eventually the rescue squad\/EMS [agency] also merged into the fire department as Oak Island Fire Department (Emergency Services). &#8220;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Volunteer EMS was eventually phased out and the FD provided some form of fire-based EMS until phasing EMS [services] completely out in around 2013.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;[The fire department] continued providing EMS ALS first responder [service] until [August 2022] and now [provide] BLS first responder [service].&#8221;<\/p>\n<div data-animation=\"no-animation\" data-icons-animation=\"no-animation\" data-overlay=\"on\" data-change-size=\"\" data-button-size=\"0.7\" style=\"font-size:0.7em!important;display:none;\" class=\"supsystic-social-sharing supsystic-social-sharing-package-flat supsystic-social-sharing-content supsystic-social-sharing-content-align-left\" data-text=\"\"><a data-networks=\"[]\" class=\"social-sharing-button sharer-flat sharer-flat-8 counter-standard without-counter facebook\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Facebook\" href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Flegeros.com%2Fblog%2Flong-beach-rescue%2F\" data-main-href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u={url}\" data-nid=\"1\" data-name=\"\" data-pid=\"1\" data-post-id=\"10757\" data-url=\"https:\/\/legeros.com\/blog\/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php\" data-description=\"Long Beach Rescue Squad History\" rel=\"nofollow\" data-mailto=\"\"><i class=\"fa-ssbs fa-ssbs-fw fa-ssbs-facebook\"><span>Share<\/span><\/i><div class=\"counter-wrap standard\"><span class=\"counter\">0<\/span><\/div><\/a><a data-networks=\"[]\" class=\"social-sharing-button sharer-flat sharer-flat-8 counter-standard without-counter twitter\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Twitter\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Flegeros.com%2Fblog%2Flong-beach-rescue%2F&text=Long+Beach+Rescue+Squad+History\" data-main-href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url={url}&text={title}\" data-nid=\"2\" data-name=\"\" data-pid=\"1\" data-post-id=\"10757\" data-url=\"https:\/\/legeros.com\/blog\/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php\" data-description=\"Long Beach Rescue Squad History\" rel=\"nofollow\" data-mailto=\"\"><i class=\"fa-ssbs fa-ssbs-fw fa-ssbs-twitter\"><span>Share<\/span><\/i><div class=\"counter-wrap standard\"><span class=\"counter\">0<\/span><\/div><\/a><a data-networks=\"[]\" class=\"social-sharing-button sharer-flat sharer-flat-8 counter-standard without-counter pinterest\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Pinterest\" href=\"http:\/\/pinterest.com\/pin\/create\/link\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Flegeros.com%2Fblog%2Flong-beach-rescue%2F&description=Long+Beach+Rescue+Squad+History\" data-main-href=\"http:\/\/pinterest.com\/pin\/create\/link\/?url={url}&description={title}\" data-nid=\"7\" data-name=\"\" data-pid=\"1\" data-post-id=\"10757\" data-url=\"https:\/\/legeros.com\/blog\/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php\" data-description=\"Long Beach Rescue Squad History\" rel=\"nofollow\" data-mailto=\"\"><i class=\"fa-ssbs fa-ssbs-fw fa-ssbs-pinterest\"><span>Share<\/span><\/i><div class=\"counter-wrap standard\"><span class=\"counter\">0<\/span><\/div><\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is a blog version of a Facebook posting from September 10, 2022.\u00a0 Early history of Long Beach Rescue Squad on Oak Island. From Wolfgang Furstenau&#8217;s 1995 book &#8220;Long Beach &#8211; A North Carolina Town: Its Origin and History,&#8221; from a copy in the collection of the North Carolina Heritage and Government Library in Raleigh. &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/legeros.com\/blog\/long-beach-rescue\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading &lsquo;Long Beach Rescue Squad History&rsquo; &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n<div data-animation=\"no-animation\" data-icons-animation=\"no-animation\" data-overlay=\"on\" data-change-size=\"\" data-button-size=\"0.7\" style=\"font-size:0.7em!important;display:none;\" class=\"supsystic-social-sharing supsystic-social-sharing-package-flat supsystic-social-sharing-content supsystic-social-sharing-content-align-left\" data-text=\"\"><a data-networks=\"[]\" class=\"social-sharing-button sharer-flat sharer-flat-8 counter-standard without-counter facebook\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Facebook\" href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Flegeros.com%2Fblog%2Flong-beach-rescue%2F\" data-main-href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u={url}\" data-nid=\"1\" data-name=\"\" data-pid=\"1\" data-post-id=\"10757\" data-url=\"https:\/\/legeros.com\/blog\/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php\" data-description=\"Long Beach Rescue Squad History\" rel=\"nofollow\" data-mailto=\"\"><i class=\"fa-ssbs fa-ssbs-fw fa-ssbs-facebook\"><span>Share<\/span><\/i><div class=\"counter-wrap standard\"><span class=\"counter\">0<\/span><\/div><\/a><a data-networks=\"[]\" class=\"social-sharing-button sharer-flat sharer-flat-8 counter-standard without-counter twitter\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Twitter\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Flegeros.com%2Fblog%2Flong-beach-rescue%2F&text=Long+Beach+Rescue+Squad+History\" data-main-href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url={url}&text={title}\" data-nid=\"2\" data-name=\"\" data-pid=\"1\" data-post-id=\"10757\" data-url=\"https:\/\/legeros.com\/blog\/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php\" data-description=\"Long Beach Rescue Squad History\" rel=\"nofollow\" data-mailto=\"\"><i class=\"fa-ssbs fa-ssbs-fw fa-ssbs-twitter\"><span>Share<\/span><\/i><div class=\"counter-wrap standard\"><span class=\"counter\">0<\/span><\/div><\/a><a data-networks=\"[]\" class=\"social-sharing-button sharer-flat sharer-flat-8 counter-standard without-counter pinterest\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Pinterest\" href=\"http:\/\/pinterest.com\/pin\/create\/link\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Flegeros.com%2Fblog%2Flong-beach-rescue%2F&description=Long+Beach+Rescue+Squad+History\" data-main-href=\"http:\/\/pinterest.com\/pin\/create\/link\/?url={url}&description={title}\" data-nid=\"7\" data-name=\"\" data-pid=\"1\" data-post-id=\"10757\" data-url=\"https:\/\/legeros.com\/blog\/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php\" data-description=\"Long Beach Rescue Squad History\" rel=\"nofollow\" data-mailto=\"\"><i class=\"fa-ssbs fa-ssbs-fw fa-ssbs-pinterest\"><span>Share<\/span><\/i><div class=\"counter-wrap standard\"><span class=\"counter\">0<\/span><\/div><\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/legeros.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10757"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/legeros.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/legeros.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legeros.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legeros.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10757"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/legeros.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10761,"href":"https:\/\/legeros.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10757\/revisions\/10761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/legeros.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legeros.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/legeros.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}