06/01/15 321 W, 1 I - + 5 - 3 Morrisville Fire Department 60th Anniversary Parade & Open House on Saturday, June 6
On Saturday, June 6, 2015, the Morrisville Fire Department celebrates sixty years of service. They'll start the day with a fire truck parade down Town Hall Day at 10:00 a.m. This is followed by an open house at Fire Station 1 from 10:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The current count is twenty-four pieces of apparatus plus mixed honor guard.
Come and join the celebration that includes free hot dogs from noon to 2:00 p.m. For those photographing the trucks, they'll be staging before the parade at Cedar Fork Elementary School at 1050 Town Hall Drive.
The Morrisville Fire Department was chartered in June 1955. They served the communities of Morrisville, Carpenter, Upchurch, Green Level, and largely rural farming areas of western Wake County.
Their first fire station was a tin shed behind the Red & White store at the corner of Morrisville-Carpenter Road and Highway 54. Their first first truck was a converted "deuce and a half" from surplus converted to a pumper with a 750 gallon tank.
They constructed their first permanent fire station across the street in 1960, and added a second station (or substation) the currently named Carpenter-Fire Station Road in 1975. This increased their fire district from ten to approximately twenty-five square miles.
The first full-time Fire Chief was hired in 1991, and he supervised seven part-time paid members during weekdays along with volunteer members. They later hired their first career firefighters and today are staffed with forty-nine career members including administration staff, sixteen volunteers, and six junior members.
In 1995, the fire department became a municipal entity. In 1999, the third fire
station was opened at 10632 Chapel Hill Road. It was named Station 2, and the "Carpenter fire station" was renamed Station 3. In 2007, Station 3 moved next door
to Cary Fire Station 7, in a co-located facility. In 2012, Station 1 moved
around the corner to new quarters on Town Hall Drive. Click to enlarge:
