Dare Beaches Sanitary District Fire DepartmentLast updated March 19, 2024 Research Notes From 2020See these research notes (PDF) based on “Chronology of the Dare Beaches Fire Departments” prepared by Charles Gaeta, Southern Shores Volunteer Fire Department, August 1991. Those notes are in the collection of the Outer Banks History Center. Blog Posting From 2019This posting originated as a Facebook discussion, started on January 29, 2019. Here's a new former fire department, for adding to my database. Dare Beaches Sanitary District Fire Department. Organized in 1959, it appears. The sanitary district dates to the early 1950s (or earlier). They floated a bond issue in 1953 for district members, for $10,000 for firefighting equipment. That apparently failed. The bond issue was repeated in 1958, for the same amount. That one apparently passed.
By August 1959, as reported by North Carolina State Firemen's Association Statistician Albert Brinson in the annual conference minutes, two pieces of fire apparatus had been acquired by the sanitary district. They were two one-ton Ford trucks, equipped with 600 GPM pumps, and 300 gallon water tanks[1]. They were provided to/for the towns of Nags Head and Kitty Hawk. W. H. Smith was the Sanitary District Fire Chief, and one company of volunteers had been organized in Kitty Hawk. Another would be forming in Nags Head. The Kitty Hawk volunteers were planning to buy a lot in the center of their area, to build a 26 by 40 foot fire station. The Nags Head truck would be housed at the "Army radar installation."[2]
Kill Devil Hills was also part of the sanitary district, Brinson's report noted, but had its own fire department and was "exempted by legislative action" from paying taxes to operate and equip the Sanitary District FD. [1] One local person recalls the trucks having front-mounted Darley pumps. One of the trucks was later parked at Public Works, and was bought by a private citizen. Last seen in Manteo. [2] The Army radar installation was apparently a former Coast Guard facility, Station Nags Head. Built in 1874, the facility was transferred to GSA in 1957, and then to the Army in 1961. There were two successive stations, near the present-day town hall. It was seriously damaged (and subsequent demolished) during the 1962 Ash Wednesday storm. See below. Bond Issues These public notices appeared in the Coastland Times, among others during the same time period:
Controversy The governance of the Sanitary District was apparently controversial, as newspaper editorials and advertisements took sides:
Pumper-Tanker in 1961 These specs for a 1,000 gallon pumper-tanker were published in the June 2, 1961, issue of the Coastland Times.
Then What Happened? On March 2, 1961, incorporation papers were filed for the Nags Head Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. By summer 1962, the Nags Head fire department had received new equipment, a pumper and a tanker, that replaced equipment "rendered unusable" by "the March storm."[3] The trucks were being housed at the "old radar station," formerly the Nags Head Coast Guard Station, reported the Coastland Times on July 13, 1962. Since the facility was to be demolished, a new "fire headquarters building" was needed, either "erected or rented." The story said that tentative plans were being made to build a cinder block building to house the fire equipment. The fire department was cited as an agency of the Dare Beaches Sanitary District, which now only encompassed the town of Nags Head. The town of Kitty Hawk had apparently been removed. Financing for the fire station was being studied, such as the department borrowing the needed money, and renting the building to the town until the loan was paid off. The Coastland Times on October 9, 1964, featured a profile of Dare County's then five fire departments. Nags Head Fire Department had three trucks and thirty-six volunteers, and operated on a budget of $11,250 for that year. The story noted that a "good deal of that budget money" would be used on new equipment, to allow the fire department to change from a "tank and well system" to the new fire hydrants in town. Note there were a total of nine fire alarms so far in 1964, one less than for all of 1963. Of the nine fires, six were grass fires, and one of which "set a cottage on fire." Two other cottages had also been damaged by fire, and minor damage was sustained by a pick-up truck. The Nags Head Fire Department was "formerly under the jurisdiction" of the Nags Head Sanitary District. (Was it renamed from Dare Beaches Sanitary District?) And the department would "soon come under" the town of Nags Head, which "incorporates a much larger area." And to retain its present fire rating, Nags Head (the town? the department?) will have to construct a second fire station in the southern section of the eleven mile-long town. Plans were underway. The town of Kitty Hawk was noted as not having a fire department, with fire calls lately answered by Kill Devil Hills and "despite grumbling of [town] taxpayers." [3]The storm was the Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962, which battered the mid-Atlantic coast from March 6 through March 8, 1962. It's considered the most extreme nor'easter on record to strike the mid-Atlantic coasts. It killed 40 people, injured over 1,000, and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in property damage in six states. Kitty Hawk Fire Department What happened to the original Dare Beaches Sanitary District Fire Department plans of building a fire station in Kitty Hawk? Recounted a Coastland Times story in 2005, that building was located next to what was known then and now as Wink's Market. Nine citizens borrowed enough money in 1959 to build the structure. How long did that fire station operate? To be determined. Noted the 2005 story, the original building was now occupied by Old Firehouse Gourmet Foods and Winery. Tax records identify the one-story building as 4622 N. Virginia Dare Trail. Through the late 1960s, "many influential people within the town pushed for the establishment of a real fire department." On January 18, 1971, Kitty Hawk Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. was incorporated. And it included the Colington and Southern Shores communities. Once the towns incorporated, the three departments split and "everybody became their own identity." In 1974, a new fire station was constructed on Kitty Hawk Road. The Village of Southern Shores became the Town of Southern Shores in 1979, and followed by Kitty Hawk in 1981. And KHFD grew after that, obtaining its first used pumpers from a department in Chesapeake, VA, and adding other surplus when and where available. The town of Kitty Hawk hired its first paid firefighter, a Chief, on August 1, 1994. Three years later, the fire department merged with the town. Later History At a public hearing on June 3, 1985, town commissioners discussed the Nags Head Fire Department's request for a new fire station, and an additional pumper. The current station, located across the highway from Jockey's Ridge State Park, was only large enough for three trucks, "two of which have a total clearance in front and back of seven inches." The Town Manager said that means of financing the requested fire station were being studied. The fire department had requested over $775,000 for the coming budget, including $250,000 for the fire station, $150,000 for the pumper, and $75,000 for a 100-foot ladder truck. The President of the Nags Head Civic Association was not in favor of a ladder truck, because he wanted "building heights in Nags Head to be 35 feet or lower." Ground was broken on April 4, 1988, for a new Nags Head fire station on the Highway 158 Bypass, across from City Hall. Construction was completed in a year and the opening ceremony for the new station was scheduled for April 15, 1989. On Tuesday, October 25, 2005, ground was broken for a new Kitty Hawk fire station at 859 West Kitty Hawk Road. Construction started in November 2006. On May 9, 2007, the new station was dedicated. On Sunday, February 19, 2006, a second fire station in South Nags Head was scheduled to be activated. Newspapers Coastland Times
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