Legeros Fire Blog Archives 2006-2015  -

This posting has been moved to http://legeros.com/blog/vintage-raleigh-fire-department-rules-regulations-booklet/.

Presented by the Raleigh Fire Museum, the men and women of the Raleigh Fire Department who stood watch on December 25, in select years between 1928 and 1996. Log book excepts. View the photo album, or see same via their Facebook posting.
 

Last week Lee Wilson paid a visit to Lillington, to photographer their two antique (and well-preserved) antique engines. The older one is a 1928 GMC/American LaFrance Type 99 triple combination, #G-125. (Shipped on June 27, 1928, says the Peckham database.) With 500 GPM pump and 80 gallon tank. Cost $6,500. The newer one is a 1961 Ford/Seagrave pumper. (Model? Specs?) Both are housed in the former Lillington Rescue Squad building. (The squad was chartered in 1968, say state corporation records. They operated through the 1970s, we're told. The corporation dissolved in 1995.) Such beautiful trucks. See more photos from Lee.
 

Lee Wilson photos

Orange Rural Fire Department in Hillsborough has received a pair of 2015 Sutphen Monarch pumper-tankers, 1500/1000. They were delivered on Friday, December 18. Notes this town press release, they cost $480,00 each. One was purchased by the town and is lettered for Hillsborough Fire Department. The other was purchased by Orange Rural, which is the private fire department that is contracted by the town. (The contract requires the town to provide one engine and one ladder for operation by ORFD.)

The "town truck" replaces a 1996 KME pumper, 1500/750. The "rural truck" replaces a KME engine (model year?) that overturned in January. See blog posting about that incident. See more photos on the ORFD Facebook page, as well as some from Lee Wilson last week. See also our ongoing updates about the history of HFD and ORFD. Still doing some research there.
 

Courtesy Orange Rural Fire Department

The content of this posting has been moved to http://legeros.com/history/hillsborough

Apparatus

• Implement multi-year replacement schedule, as part of fleet management program.

Facilities

• Renovate legacy fire stations to improve them. Planned schedule:
  • Station 5 (FY16)
  • Station 2 (FY16, FY17)
  • Station 10, Station 15 (FY17, FY18)
  • Station 8, Station 16 (FY18, FY19)
  • Station 9, Station 17 (FY19, FY20)
  • Station 18, Station 19 (FY20, FY21)
  • Station 4, Station 20 (FY21, FY22)
  • Station 21, Station 22 (FY22, FY23?)
• Relocate two legacy facilities:
  • Headquarters (Office of Fire Chief, Office of Fire Marshal, etc.) and Station 1 (as joint facility)
  • Station 3
  • Station 23
• Add additional fire station:
  • Station 30 (see page 10 for map of city growth areas. Includes both in-fill and expansion areas.)
• Develop a [new] training center that includes an emergency vehicle driving course.
• Improve (e.g., likely expand) Services facilities.

Technology

• Move from legacy mobile data terminals (MDTs) to hybrid tablet and cloud-based systems.
• Move to new computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system.

Notes What would six battalions look like? Page 32 has a prospective map: West Division Station 1, 2, 3, 10, 26 Station 4, 9, 15, 16 Station 5, 6, 8, 14, 20 East Division Station 7, 11, 12, 21, 27 Station 19, 22, 25, 28 Station 17, 18, 23, 24, 29

The Buies Creek Fire Department has ordered an black-over-orange Pierce Arrow XT (though the drawing shows a Velocity) aerial platform, notes this Facebook posting from Atlantic Emergency Solutions. The truck will equipped with a 1500 GPM pump, 300 gallon water tank, and 100-foot platform. The colors are those of the Campbell University Fighting Camels. This is the first truck in the department's history to be painted in the University's colors. Very cool and you know the next question. What other orange fire engines are operating in the Carolinas? It'll replace a 1988 Pierce Arrow rear-mount platform, formerly operated by the town of Cary.
 

The opening of Cary's new fire station this week gets me thinking. How many newly constructed fire stations have opened in Raleigh and Wake County? Let's take a look...

Criteria:

• Purpose-built as a fire station, or
• Purpose-built to house a fire department. Thus can include town hall buildings or other combination structures

Answer:

At least 122.

Details below. See Mike's Wake County station register (PDF) for more information.
 

The town of Cary opened a new fire station on Monday. The personnel of Engine 2 and Rescue 2 reported for duty at the newly completed Station 2 at 601 E. Chatham Street. They were transported to old Station 2 at 875 SE Maynard Road, and brought the apparatus to the new facility. Those are a 2006 Pierce Dash pumper and a 2012 Pierce Velocity walk-around heavy rescue.

The 13,395 square-foot facility is a two-story structure and the town's second fire station with a pole. Or poles, plural. It's also their second station with accordion-style (also called bi-parting) bay doors. (They open fast. Within seconds.) Including land, design, and construction, the new fire station cost about $5.5M. A dedication ceremony is planned for Friday, December 18, at 11:30 a.m. Read the press release.

Upon the relocation of Engine 2 and Rescue 2 yesterday morning, old Station 2 became Station 9. The legacy facility will house Engine 9 until a permanent home is constructed at 1427 Walnut Street. The property is located at the corner of Walnut Street and Nottingham Drive. There's an abandoned church on the site, which the fire department has been using for occasional training. There's been $750,000 funded for the project thus far.

Engine 9 was placed in service with Engine 6, relocated from Station 6 at 3609 Ten-Ten Road. Same is a 2003 Pierce Dash pumper that will be re-lettered when new decals arrive. Also yesterday morning, Ladder 6 was renamed Engine 6. They'll operating as a quint company with their 2008 Pierce Velocity aerial ladder. Additionally, Rescue 4 was moved to Station 6. Now Rescue 6, they operate the town's second 2012 Pierce Velocity rescue, which is identical to Rescue 2.
 

Construction has started on Apex Public Safety Station 5 at 1050 Kelly Road. Notes this FY 2015-16 Capital Improvement Plan document, the $3.8M project will be a 16,500 square-foot facility that will house twelve firefighters, two paramedics, and the Community Services division of the police department. The station will house Engine 5 and a future 75-foot quint, along with an ambulance and police mobile equipment.

The need for the station has been forecast since 2004, and was highlighted as an important facility as part of the town's 2013 ISO review. It'll serve three new schools and some 2,000 new residences. The station will reduce response times by approximately two minutes in all primary service areas west of Kelly Road. Here's a panoramic photo of the site. Click twice to enlarge:
 

The above document also details other fire department and public safety capital plans, notably:

• FY15-16
  New engine for Station 5 - $385,000
  Already ordered, being built by Spartan.
   
  Rescue 4 replacement - $445,000
  Being spec'ed, believe.
  Replaces 1995 HME/Rescue Master.
   
  SCBA replacement - $470,400 (two-year total)
   
• FY16-17
  Engine replacement - $385,000
  Replace 2001 HME pumper that is reserve at Station 3.
  
  Ladder truck for Station 5 - $850,000
  ISO inspection in 2013 noted three ladder trucks are needed to properly cover town.
  
  Renovations to Station 4 - $253,890
  Will allow relocation of Traffic Safety Unit of police department, including personnel, equipment, trailers, and vehicles used by the unit.
   
  Relocation Fire Station 1 - $1.5M
  Construct single-company fire station on town-owned land at corner of Old Raleigh Road and Apex Peakway. Would house engine and other apparatus at Station 1. Existing facility would be repurposed and administrative and training functions moved there, plus continue to have portions of building available for civic functions.

• FY17-18
  Engine replacement - $395,000
  Replace 2002 Quality pumper that will be serving as a reserve.
   
• Horizon Issues
  Public Safety Station 6 - $4.2M
  For providing emergency services to the White Oak Basin and Green Level areas of town. Modeled after Station 5. Would house engine company and twelve personnel. Would also generate need for a second Battalion Chief.

Found for sale on eBay is this vintage photo labeled "Chrlotte Fire Dept." Does'nt appear to be Charlotte, North Carolina, as the fire station doesn't match their old station photos. That leaves six other towns named Charlotte in Arkansas, Iowa, Michigan Tennessee, Texas, and Vermont. As for the apparatus--probably 1910s era--is it a Knox? Seagrave? Christie retrofit? (Thanks to the SPAAMFAA gang on Facebook for those suggestions.) Click to enlarge:
 

The Clayton Fire Department yesterday took delivery of their new Rescue 1, a 2015 Pierce Enforcer heavy rescue. As noted in this Facebook announcement, they expect the truck to be in service within the next week or two. The truck will also serve as a Service [Ladder] Company for the NCDOI Response Rating System. It replaces a 1997 Simon-Duplex-Salisbuy heavy rescue, ex-Morrisville. Clayton acquired that truck from Morrisville in the early 2000s.¹ Below is Lee Wilson's photos of the new truck, as well as the current rescue when it served in Morrisville.
 

Lee Wilson photos

 ¹There were two rescues swapped between Clayton and Morrisville in the early 2000s. At the same time they sold their heavy rescue, MFD acquired a 2000 Ford F-550 light rescue from Clayton Area Rescue Squad. (Presumably with CARS moving to EMS-only services? That was happening locally, with area "rescue squads" become EMS-only agencies. Such as Cary, Six Forks, etc.) Morrisville then purchased a 1989 Simon-Duplex/KME/Saulsbury from somewhere "up North." (The small rescue is still in service, and the big rescue was replaced by MFD in 2013.)

In October, this photo was posted to the SPAAMFAA Facebook group. Stony Hill's 1954 Mack before it was Stony Hill's. The truck originally served the  Independent Fire Company of Westville, NJ, as Engine 77. The 1954 Mack B/Howe 750/400 was bought by Stony Hill in 1974.

They paid $10,000 for the truck, which was purchased from Slagle's in South Boston, VA. The truck had been modified there with a new 500 gallon booster tank. Stony Hill further modified the truck, with wooden extension to the hose bed. The truck is still on their roster as a parade pierce.

As for IFC in Westville? They merged with Union Fire Company in 1987, which also protected the town. They merged and formed Westville Fire Department. Click to enlarge:
 

Bob Norman photo via SPAAMFAA on Facebook

More fun with Sanborn Maps. This time to Carteret County and the town of Beaufort. Below are annotated map excerpts from 1898 to 1941, showing the various locations for the town's fire station. And fire stations, plural, as they had two and then three in the early decades of the last century. Following those is a table with descriptive information from the map sheets. Learn more about Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps. Also, see these BFD historical images, that we posted and blogged about in 2009. Click to enlarge:
 

The new Raleigh-Wake Emergency Communications Center is nearing completion in the new Critical Public Safety Facility off Skycrest Drive. Among the features of new facility are... windows! The new call center will be located on the third floor of the building, above a new emergency operations center (first floor) and the city's traffic management and data center (second floor).

The current call center is housed in the basement of the Municipal Building at 222 W. Hargett Street. And with no windows, or glorious high ceilings. The ECC opened at that location in 1982, after moving from the first floor of the next-door police headquarters at 110 S. McDowell Street, where they originated in 1972.

And in case you missed it, earlier this month, the RWECC was named of the Top Ten 911 Dispatch Call Centers Centers in the US for 2015, by 911DispatcherEdu. Read that story, or see the RWECC Facebook posting about same.

Congrats to the ECC on their coming new quarters. Can't wait to visit! What are some of the features of the new facility, or comparative stats of future versus present quarters? Maybe readers can advise.

Three new 2015 Pierce Impel pumpers have been delivered to three Wake County fire departments: Stony Hill, Wake New Hope, and Wendell fire departments. They were purchased by the county, and spec'ed by each department, from a base spec created for all county fire departments. No factory photos have been posted yet to the company's Flickr site, but Lee Wilson has already photographed each. He'll take proper posed photos soon enough.

• Stony Hill Engine 261 
  1250/1000/20
  Delivered November 24
  For Station 1. Replaces 1996 International/KME at Station 1, which will be renamed Pumper 395 and moved to Station 2 as a "second out" engine.
  See more photos.
• Wake New Hope Engine 4
  1250/1000
  Delivered November 18
  For Station 2, to replace Engine 8, 1995 Spartan/S&S, which will be sold.
  See more photos.
• Wendell Engine 112
  1250/1000
  Delivered November 20
  For Station 1, to replace Engine 112, 1995 (1994?) Freightliner/E-One.
  See more photos.

Lee Wilson photos

The Bunn Fire Department in Franklin County took delivery of their new Tanker 21 on Monday and Lee Wilson was there to photograph the thing. It's a 2015 Spartan/Custom Fire pumper-tanker, 1250/1000/30, and will replace a 1990 Ford/E-One. See more photos from Lee. That their using a new, custom-cab engine as a tanker is unusual in these parts. What other area fire departments have also done same?
 

Lee Wilson photo

Here's a highlight from last week's meaty Wake County Fire Commission meeting (see posting). Lots of good updates and discussions, including this item: county logos will be added to all county-owned fire vehicles. That is, those titled to Wake County. This includes both apparatus and administrative vehicles.

The reason is a North Carolina General Statute that's been inadvertently neglected. The state requires the display of a logo with a minimum of eight-inch size, on both sides of the vehicle, and clearly visible when the vehicle is operational. (The law applies only to counties and not municipalities, incidentally.) This was addressed as part of a recommendation that all future fire department admin. vehicles be purchased through county General Services, to ensure utilization of state contract pricing.

How many vehicles are we talking about? Eleven engines, ten tankers, five rescues, and two admin. vehicles. That's about five years of past purchases. County-purchased apparatus and admin. vehicles before that time--such as the bulk purchases that started about 2004--were titled directly to the departments.

Here's the logo that will be added, and which already appears on Wake County Fire Services vehicles:
 

Two alarms were struck in Cary this morning at 1102 Walnut Street. On the Border restaurant, located across the street from Cary Towne Center. Engine 2 arriving with heavy fire showing from the exterior patio of a one-story, brick-and-wood restaurant with 6,869 square feet. Built 1996.

Fire extending to interior dining room and other interior spaces. Attack with two-inch line from Engine 2, plus additional hand lines. Ladder 1 positioned on Walnut Street. Ladder 3 positioned and deployed (but no water flowed) in parking lot, behind structure. Command and medical also located in parking lot. One hydrant caught, also in the parking lot.

Dispatched 12:16 a.m. Contained within 15-20 minutes. Controlled 1:30 p.m. Extended overhaul, with units on scene for a number of hours. Building unoccupied at the time of fire, and had been vacated about thirty minutes prior. No information on cause yet announced in news.

First alarm was E2, E4, E3, L3, R2, B1, and Swift Creek Engine 1. Second alarm was E1, L1, B2, and Car 3.¹ Plus WC1 for investigation. Medical with EMS 51, EMS 8, EMS 4, M91, and T1.

And with Station 2 relocating in two weeks, it's likely the last two-bagger for Engine 2 from that location. (Engine 2 and Rescue 2 will move to the new Chatham Street station. On the same day, Engine 9 will be placed in service at the current Station 2, and Ladder 6 will become the quint company Engine 6. )

FireNews.net on Twitter posted this pre-arrival picture. Below that are a couple pictures by Mike Legeros on Twitter, taken later into the incident. And forthcoming to his photo site:

FireNews.net contributor photo




Mike Legeros photos

¹What constitutes a second alarm in Cary? There are two flavors:

• Moderate risk, which are most of the structures in Cary:
  First Alarm - Three engines, one ladder, one rescue, one Battalion Chief, and one mutual aid engine.
  Second Alarm - One engine, one ladder, one Battalion Chief, one Asst. Chief.
• High risk/high rise:
  First Alarm - Three engines, two ladders, one rescue, two Battalion Chiefs
  Second Alarm - One engine, one ladder, one rescue, one Asst. Chief.

The next meeting of the Wake County Fire Commission is Thursday, November 19, 2015, at 7:00 p.m. The location is the Wake County EMS Training Facility, in the lower level of the Wake County Commons Building, 4011 Carya Drive. The documents for the meeting are linked below.

Agenda

• Meeting Called to Order: Chairman Lucius Jones
  • Invocation
  • Roll of Members Present
• Items of Business
  • Approval of Agenda
  • Adoption of Minutes for July 16, 2015 Regular Meeting
• Regular Agenda
  • Consider Apparatus Committee recommendation to amend Apparatus Policy regarding the Purchase of Administration Vehicles
  • Consider Approval of Calendar Year 2016 Meeting Dates
  • Consider Appointment of Citizen / Consumers for Fire Commission Budget Committee
• Information Agenda
  • Eastern Wake Fire Department Update on Use of Fund Balance
  • Finance and Fire Apparatus Overview
  • Fire Tax Financial Report
  • FY 2017 Fire Tax Budget Update
  • Share Point Overview
  • Standing Committee Updates
    • Equipment Committee
    • Compensation and Staffing Committee
    • Budget Committee
  • Chair Report
  • Fire Services Director Report
• Other Business
• Public Comments:
  • Comments from the public will be received at the time appointed by the Chairman of the Fire Commission for 30 minutes maximum time allotted, with a maximum of three minutes per person. A signup sheet for those who wish to speak during the public comments section of the meeting is located at the entrance of the meeting room.
• Adjournment - Next Meeting January 21, 2016

Documents

Agenda packet (PDF, 8.3MB)

Found this one among records of Raleigh's 1958 and 1960 aerial ladders. Interpreting the thing as reasons for rejecting bids for building one or more pumpers. Likely dates to 1958, when the city solicited bids for a single pumping engine.

American LaFrance won that one. They shipped a 1958 American LaFrance 900 Series pumper (#N-720), 1000/300, on July 31, 1959. Bid price was $21,800. Purchase price was $23,354.85, including equipment.

This document records apparent reject reasons for pumpers from FWD, Oren, Pirsch, and "Seagraves." Some notes on those four apparatus builders. See my Raleigh apparatus register for more details:

• FWD
  Built apparatus from 1910 to 1970s
  Raleigh received two pumpers in the 1950s, of model years 1950 and 1957. 
• Oren
  Built apparatus from 1930s to 1980s
  None ever purchased in Raleigh. There were a handful (or more?) in North Carolina's major cities, mid-century, if memory serves.
• Pirsch
  Built apparatus from 1900 to 1991
  Raleigh ordered both an engine and a rear-mount ladder in 1984-85. The engine was delivered, 1985 model, but the ladder ended up in Chicago. Read blog post about that.
• Seagrave
  Built apparatus from 1881 to present
  Raleigh never purchased an engine, but bought a rear-mounted ladder, 1986 model.

Click once or twice to enlarge: