Raleigh/Wake Firefighting Blog  -

Heard on scanner, unit to dispatch: "We forgot to mash our status when we got on the scene."

High pucker factor on this one, today at Wake Forest's working house fire: homeowner advises quantity of ammunition stored inside structure.

The obvious question when examining station square-footage, of course, is how much average square-footage does each fire person have? Here are those calculations in PDF format, based on estimated bay sizes drawn from Wake County real estate record drawings: And if we summarize the largest and smallest... READ MORE

Here's a full list of Raleigh Fire Department stations and their square-footage, as well as other facilities information: http://www.legeros.com/ralwake/raleigh/history/station-survey.pdf.

The Raleigh Fire Department has acquired another white Volvo tractor. It was last seen sitting at the Keeter Training Center and will presumably replace one of the older tractor that pull, say, the Mass Casualty Incident trailer. Here's a picture: READ MORE

Any steam fire engine experts out there? A municipal museum in central North Carolina has contacted me, asking if I can help date their LaFrance steamer. It's either an 1885 or a 1904 model. Based on the forward position of the pressure chamber (correct term?), I'm guessing 1885. Hopefully I have at least one book with an answer. Here's a picture: READ MORE

In preparation for residential relocation, I recently disassembled my fifteen- or maybe twenty-foot discone antenna from outside my Brentwood-area home. For the meantime, I pulled out a spare base antenna and plugged it into my trunking scanner. Plastic antenna, non-extending. Maybe 800mhz attuned, maybe not. And sure enough, I'm picking up Cary and RDU for the first time. Didn't work with the external, but does with the spare. Good gravy.

From the city's site, the site plan for Raleigh Fire Station 28. The lot is three acres, as reported in today's News & Observer. The square-footage is listed as 9,990, which will make the three-bay facility the second largest in the department after Station 1 (11,200 square-feet) but ahead of Station 8 (~8500), Station 26 (~7258), and Station 27 (6873). That's counting both upstairs and downstairs for Station 8. Here's the aforementioned site plan: READ MORE

Inspired by a firepics.net thread, here are some Google Earth views of some local and regional fire stations and fire facilities: http://www.legeros.com/temp/ge/. Send me yours and I'll upload to this temp directory. You'll need to (a.) install Google Earth, (b.) navigate to the desired location, and (c.) click File, Save Image to store a local copy of the displayed image. Happy hunting!

Please feel free to report typos, errors, or outright inaccuracies on our photo pages. Just drop a mail message, or even add an anonymous comment to a blog posting. We will correct our mistakes as quickly as possible. Ours is "guerilla coverage" and goofs do occur. Thanks for your scrutiny.

Now that spam is beginning to appear in the form of presumably auto-generated comments, the offending IP ranges are being blocked. If, as a result, any readers find their comments no longer appearing on the weblog, please drop a mail message and I'll unblock the IP range and we'll figure out a different way to let you in and keep the robot out.

Engine 2 and others are on the scene of a woods fire off South Wilmington Street, behind an old shopping center that's the site of the old Raleigh Municipal Airport. Wander that way during daylight and you can still see the runways pretty clearly. No structures still remain, save for part of a light tower. Here's some information about the old airport.

Speaking of Raleigh's Macks, here's a spreadsheet summary of all the CF pumpers that were purchased by RFD during the seventies and eighties: . Click the icon to download. Pictures of the trucks are available here.

How many different communications centers dispatch fire and EMS departments in Wake County? READ MORE

This has been linked for some time from legeros.com/ralwake, and is from "Pictorial History of Firefighting" by Robert W. Masters, revised edition published in 1967 by Castle Books, New York, reprinted without permission.

Buffs have been variously defined as "sidewalk superintendents of fires," as "fire-engine chasers who think they're the guys for whom the bell tolls," as "frustrated firemen," and as "smoked hams who are never quite cured." Irreverent as these definitions are, buffs have been called still nastier names by some firemen and chiefs. Traditionally, most professional fire-fighters look down on buffs, without good reason. READ MORE

A reader found one of Raleigh's old Macks in Smithfield, sitting behind a metal recycling plant on Brightleaf Boulevard. The 1973 Mack CF pumper last served as Engine 34, a reserve engine. It was sold as scrap in April 2004, though that fact is absent from this historical page. D'oh! He also snapped some pics: READ MORE

Durham Highway has a live burn today, Saturday, March 11, somewhere. From the radio announcement, I believe Falls is participating as well. Location unknown. Watch for the smoke. Wendell will burn a residential structure on Sunday, March 12, at the intersection of Wendell Boulevard and Rolesville Road. Exercises start around 9:00 a.m.

Occasionally, more old photos are added to the legeros.com copies of the Then and Now articles first published on FireNews. New additions today: Burlington pumper from 1944 magazine ad, Greensboro fire companies circa 1890s, and a second view of the old Wilson municipal complex. The last round of additions, as best I recall, included a Morehead City hose wagon and two Kinston fire stations and a 1924 view of the Hickory Fire Department. History is fun!

Some details on the Raleigh Fire Department's diversity recruitment plan, approved by the City Council this week as pulled from this posting on the city's web site: READ MORE

Look for larger parimeters at Raleigh structure fires these days as formal hot, warm, and cold zones are being implemented by RFD incident commanders. Here's a concise overview of said zones, found via Google, courtesy of the Phoenix Fire Department. Safety is good.

Wendell's new ladder truck is due in July. It'll be spec'ed the same as Raleigh's Truck 11, a Pierce Dash 75 straight stick with a 1,500 GPM pump and a 300 gallon tank. Wendell's present ladder truck, an ex-Raleigh 1979 Mack / 1958 American LaFrance tiller, will be disposed to a department down Wilmington way.

As noted in a comment from a reader, Truck 23 has been placed in service, relocating from Station 24. It operates a 2000 Quality/Spartan Gladiator, 75' straight stick with a 1,250 GPM pump and a 300 gallon tank.

Seen as the brand name on a Wheeled Coach ambulance employed by WakeMed Mobile Critical Care: Medical Attack Vehicle.

Attack vehicle!?!