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UPDATED:
Tuesday May 2 |
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FireNews.net Special Feature |
The Histories of North Carolina's
Fallen Firefighters
RALEIGH - On Saturday, May 6, firefighters from across the state will converge
on Nash Square in downtown Raleigh to dedicate the North
Carolina Fallen Firefighters Monument.
A memorial service
will honor the fallen heroes whose names, departments, and
death dates are inscribed on plaques surrounding the monument.
The 164 names represent line-of-duty firefighter deaths
from 1902 to 2005; both career and volunteer protectors who made the
supreme sacrifice.
These were men and women who rode engines, drove ambulances,
flew helicopters, and fought fire as industrial fire brigades.
They were heroes of every rank, from Secretary to Fire
Chief.
Downtown Shelby,
May 25, 1979
One of the darkest days in North Carolina's fire service
history
started as a smoke investigation in downtown Shelby around
6:15 p.m.
Firefighters arrived in the 100 block of West Warren Street
and found an apparently routine fire in the rear of Geoffrey's
Men's Clothing Store.
About thirty minutes into the incident, a sudden
blast shook the store and sent bricks and glass flying into the streets.
Walls had collapsed, firefighters were buried, and heavy fire
and smoke was pouring from the rear of the two-story structure.
Four firefighters and a civilian gas department
employee were dead. Another 12 firefighters were injured.
Killed instantly in the street in front of the building
were volunteer firefighter George Magness, 44, career
firefighter Nathan Hall, 27, and volunteer
firefighter
Donald Melton, 24.
Magness was also the chief of the 12-member volunteer fire
department.
Career firefighter Floyd "Nicky" Sharts, 31, was found dead
beneath the rubble in the alley behind the building.
Gas department employee Max Bowling, who had apparently gone
to the scene to shut off the building's gas supply, was also
found dead in the alley.
Believed caused by a backdraft in a void between the
building's first and second floors, the explosion snapped
surrounding trees in two, twisted street lamps, and
destroyed a 1972 American LaFrance pumper.
Some 50 people were on the sidewalk when the building
exploded and 31 were injured. By sunset, the streets
were filled with thousands of onlookers.
Mutual aid from Cleveland, Boiling Springs, Boiling Springs Rural, Grover, Kings Mountain, Oak Grove, Shanghai, Waco, Fallston, and Polkville
brought over 230 firefighters to the scene.
Tractors and front-end loaders were also employed to remove rubble so firefighters could battle
the blaze.
Within hours, the entire block was lost.
Geoffrey’s Men’s Clothing Store,
J.E.’s Department Store, the Bible Book Store, Wonderland
Toys, Butler’s Shoe Store, and Eleanor Shops were destroyed.
Damages totaled $5 million.
Investigators, which included dozens of federal, state, and local
law enforcement agencies, later determined that the fire had been
intentionally set.
The owner of the store was convicted on five counts of voluntary manslaughter and served 10 years of a 90-year jail term.
Five separate funerals were conducted on Sunday, May 19,
and hundreds of the city's 17,000 residents filled a local
church for a memorial service the next day.
A memorial fountain at Shelby's Charles Road fire station
bears the names of their fallen heroes.
National Spinning Company
Only one other time have four firefighters died at or as a result of a single incident.
On September 7, 1982, an early-morning fire at a textile
plant in Washington killed four members of the National Spinning
Company fire brigade.
The midnight shift had just started when a fire was
discovered in the pull-skein winding department of the dye
plant at
12:08 a.m.
Fueled by miles of synthetic yarn, the flames activated the
sprinkler system which helped confine the blaze to a single
room about the size of a football field.
The plant's 150 employees were safely evacuated, though some
employees stayed behind to battle the blaze.
Four members of the plant fire brigade were overcome by
smoke and died: Maintenance Worker James Harris, 26, Packing
Operator Greg Lamm, 22, Supervisor Asa Squires,
39, and Machine Loader Jesse Woolard, 25.
A fifth worker, Supervisor Terry Wollard, was also injured
while fighting the fire. He was taken to Washington Memorial
Hospital, and then to Pitt Memorial Hospital in Greenville.
The fire was extinguished by 4:30 p.m. by firefighters from
Washington and two other departments.
The First Fatality
The earliest recorded line-of-duty death also occurred in
Washington, when Salamander Fire Company member Edward Peed was
killed on February 8,
1902.
About 5:00 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon, a fire was reported
at the Atlantic Coast Line Rail Road freight warehouse on the
waterfront.
Caused by a defective flue, the fire spread rapidly, first to
the grain elevator building, then to the Hoyt Building, and
on to a warehouse at the rear of the H. Susman Furniture
Company.
Several railroad cars were also engulfed, along with a
number of sheds along the waterfront.
As the town's volunteer fire companies battled wind-fed
flames and exploding powder kegs, telegrams were sent
to Rocky Mount, Tarboro, and Greenville to send fire
engines.
Special trains were readied and were about to leave when the
fire was reported under control at 8:30 p.m.
At 9:22 p.m., Nozzleman Peed was spraying a pile of burning
rubbish when the western wall of the Hoyt Building
collapsed. He was killed instantly.
Peed, 46, had been a member of the colored Salamander Fire Company for more than 20 years.
A monument was erected by the town's white citizens and
placed at his gravesite.
In 2000, it was relocated to a
memorial garden at the present Washington fire station.
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Downtown Shelby - May 25, 1979
Photos courtesy
Lem Lynch Photography.
For information about a DVD containing
still photographs and film footage, call
1-800-963-9963 or click the above link
to contact photographer Lem Lynch
North
Carolina Fallen Firefighters
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Pictured
left to right, top to bottom:
Bridgett Autry (Herring)
Jackie Beard (Greensboro)
Pruitt Black (Charlotte)
Todd Blanchard (Eastern Wake)
Robby Blizzard (Arrington)
Joseph Boles (Westarea)
Thomas Brooks (Lumberton)
Brian Cannon (Taylors Bridge)
Terry Carroll (Coats-Grove)
Graham Cathey
(Charlotte)
Joe Chandler (Durham)
Michael Childress (Level Cross)
Michael Copeland (Charlotte)
Richard Dorsey (Bahama)
Patrick Dougherty (Garner)
Josh Earley (Harrisburg)
Mark Franklin (Charlotte)
Roy
Gay (High Point)
W. B. Glenn (Charlotte)
Jesse Gray
(Greensboro)
George Guyer (Stokes-Rockingham)
James Haigler (Sanford)
Norman Harrison (East Rockingham)
Wayne Hawkins (Rocky Mount)
William
Hobson (Winston-Salem)
Dale Holder (Northview)
Phillip Hulen (Vann's Crossroads)
Merton Jackson (NCDFR)
Randy Jones (Cool Springs)
Sidney Jones (Thoroughfare)
Kelly Kincaid (Morganton)
Eddie Mathis (Dallas)
R. E. Mendenhall (Charlotte)
Henry Mitchell
(Rocky Mount)
Mark Morgan (NCDFR)
James Munday (Charlotte)
Marshall Newman (NCDFR)
Tim Newman (NCDFR)
Harry Nissen
(Winston-Salem)
Marshall Pettus (Charlotte)
Sandy Powell (McLeansville)
Charles Schnibben (Wilmington)
David Sharp (Fayetteville)
James Shue (Locke)
Vernon
Smith (Raleigh)
George Spittle (Charlotte)
John
Stepp (Gastonia)
Sammie Waddell (Swannanoa)
Harvey Wallace (Charlotte)
Joe Westnedge (Charlotte)
Gerald Williams (Cool Springs)
Wayne Yarborough (Waynesville)
To add photos to this montage
contact article author Mike Legeros
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Edward Peed Memorial
410 North Market
Street, Washington
Photo courtesy
Early Black
Firefighters of North Carolina
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Other Early Fatalities
New Bern firefighter Johnnie Gaskill was kicked in
the head by a fire horse and died on November 6, 1904. Two
years later, Rocky Mount fireman and Hook and Ladder Company
member Henry Mitchel suffered a heart attack on
March 20, 1906 while attending a drill for an upcoming state
fireman's tournament.
Winston firefighter Joseph Whitlow was killed when a
wall collapsed at a fire at the old Farmer's Warehouse on
Liberty and Trade streets on February 25, 1911. The large
brick building was occupied by several firms, including the
Hub Candy Company. Whitlow was in front of the confectioner when he was killed.
Charlotte Fire Chief J. Harvey Wallace
and Captain W. B. Glenn
were
killed when dynamite exploded at a fire on July 1, 1914. They
were fighting a barn fire on Cedar Street when six sticks of
dynamite, stored in the nearby home of a contractor,
exploded.
Winston-Salem firefighter Jonah Kiser was
electrocuted at a fire scene on July 14, 1915. He touched an
exposed wire during salvage and overhaul operations at
Miller's Tailor Shop in the Paramount Theater Building. Two
years later, Charlotte firefighter George Spittle died
after the engine he was riding was struck by a streetcar on
March 10, 1917.
Winston-Salem's Chiefs
Four Winston-Salem fire chiefs have died in
the line of duty.
Chief Harry Nissen died on November 28, 1932, when his
car collided with a Greyhound bus while he and
his driver were responding to a call.
Both were thrown from the vehicle and Chief Nissen died at
City Hospital without regaining consciousness.
Chief William Hobson died of a heart attack on September 16,
1938, while on duty at Fire Station #2 on South
Liberty Street. He had been chief for six
years, and was the first Winston-Salem firefighter to
die of a heart attack on duty.
Assistant Chief John Goforth collapsed and died of a
heart attack on October 29, 1956.
He was at an apartment fire and had
ordered a firefighter inside to cut a hole.
When the firefighter returned, he found his collapsed
commander.
Chief Goforth died on the
way to the hospital.
Chief Arnold Bullard died of a heart attack on July
6, 1980 after collapsing at the city's Public Safety
Training Center. CPR was initiated within minutes, but was
ultimately unsuccessful. He had been chief for two
years. Central Fire Station on North Marshall Street was
later renamed the Arnold B. Bullard Fire Station.
Father and Son
North Carolina Division of Forest Resources pilot Marshall Newman
died after a midair collision near Kinston on November 19, 1973. He
was their chief pilot and had taken mechanic Larry Moody
into the air in their single-engine Beechcraft T-34B to make
a visual inspection of another
T-34B. The second plane had reported trouble with its nose
wheel while returning from a forest fire in Columbus County.
When the planes collided, the collision severed Newman's
plane's vertical stabilizer and rudder. They crashed in a
wooded area north of the runway at Stallings Field. Both
Newman and Moody were killed. The second aircraft manually deployed its nose gear and
landed without a problem.
Twenty-seven years later, Marshall Newman's son also died in
an aircraft accident involving the Forest Service. On
September 7, 2000, pilot Tim Newman and crew chief Mike Fossett
were killed when their Huey UH-1H helicopter crashed near the Blue
Ridge Parkway, near Waynesville in Haywood County. They were
traveling to a public education event when they entered Balsam Gap and
encountered heavy fog. They were five minutes from their
landing site when Newman radioed that he would look for a
place to land until the fog lifted. Ten minutes later, the
county 911 operator began receiving calls of a low-flying
helicopter and a possible crash. The wreckage, found in a
ravine less than a mile from the Waynesville Overlook on the
Parkway, was not located until the next day due to thick fog
and heavy foliage.
Tim Newman died at age 40, and his father Marshall Newman died at age 39.
Other Aircraft Accidents
North Carolina Division of Forest Resources pilot Charles Colton died on March 27, 1979, when his single-engine Cessna
L19 crashed about two miles west of Fair Bluff in Columbus County
during low-altitude flying.
Forestry pilot Charles Cline died on July 11, 1964, the
day after his single-engine Snow S2C air tanker crashed near Dover in Craven County while demonstrating fire bombing techniques.
He died at Lenoir Memorial Hospital in Kinston.
Forestry pilot Gerald Sundstrom died on May 11, 1996, when his single-engine Mielec M18A air tanker crashed two minutes after taking off from Stallings Field in Kinston.
He was headed to a fire at Camp Lejeune when he crashed about one mile south of
the airport near Dobbs Farm Road.
Forestry pilot Merton Jackson died on May 15, 1981, when
his single-engine spotters plane crashed near the edge of a
30-acre forest fire in Onslow County. He was flown by
helicopter to Onslow Memorial Hospital where he was
pronounced dead on arrival.
West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company Chief Forester John Earle and his pilot
Albert Mann died on April 26, 1961, when their single-engine aircraft crashed in Gum Neck in Tyrrell County. Earle
was helping direct crews fighting a 7,000-acre forest fire. Earle died instantly and Mann died three hours later, while waiting for a helicopter to transport him to a Norfolk hospital.
Medical Complications
On November 14, 1952, Raleigh Fire Department Driver
Vernon Smith was injured when his 1926 American LaFrance
reserve pumper overturned on Lewis Farm Road while returning
from a call. Four other members of Engine 6 were also hurt,
but each recovered. Smith underwent 29 operations
before his death at Rex Hospital on March 10, 1956. The cause
of death was listed as uremia, a condition resulting
from kidney disease.
On April 18, 2003, Charlotte Fire Department Engineer
Mark Franklin injured his right knee while pulling hose
from his engine at an apartment fire. Despite five
months of subsequent medical care, his condition worsened. On October
17, 2003, Franklin underwent arthroscopic knee surgery. On
November 30, 2003, six weeks
after the surgery, he suffered a fatal massive pulmonary
embolus from a deep-vein thrombus in his right leg.
Fire Alarm Systems
Three fatalities
have involved personnel working with electric-telegraph fire
alarm systems, which utilized low-voltage electrical wires
typically strung from
telephone and other poles.
W. Graham Cathey (Charlotte) died
on February 8, 1928. He was a member of the alarm
system line crew and atop a telephone pole when it snapped.
He rode the pole down and it landed on top of him.
Oscar Hayworth (High Point) died on July 29, 1936. He
was Superintendent of the Electrical System and was atop a pole when he was electrocuted. His thirty-foot fall
was listed as a contributing cause of death.
William Capps (Fayetteville) died on July 18, 1956. He
was electrocuted when he came into contact with a
high-voltage power line while installing a new alarm
line in a residential area.
Other Unusual
Circumstances
Luther Horne (Fayetteville) died on December 21,
1929, killed by a collapse at the ancestral home
of James McNeill, the Fayetteville Fire Chief who reorganized the
department in 1883.
Edgar Elliott
(New Bern) died on June 10, 1931, when he fell into the Neuse River
and drowned while battling a riverfront fire.
Pruitt Black (Charlotte) died on April 1, 1934, when he tripped on his
bunker pants and fell down the pole hole.
James Rawls (Rockingham) died on July 24, 1952,
when he advanced a line across a metal fence that had come into contact with an
electric power line.
McDaniel Narron (Antioch) died on August 3, 1976,
when he suffered a heart attack while operating a pump panel
at a fire at his own residence.
Gary Fletcher (Durham) died on February 14, 1978,
eight days after catching a hydrant and being pulled to the
pavement when the hose ripped from its coupling.
Roy Bailey (West End) died on February 19, 1989, when he
was shot and killed while directing traffic.
Richard Dorsey (Bahama) died on September 6, 1996, when a falling
tree struck the passenger compartment of his brush truck during the
height of Hurricane Fran.
Statistics, 1902 to 2006
By county, 63 of North Carolina's 100 counties have
lost firefighters in the line of duty. Forsyth and
Mecklenburg counties have had the greatest number
with 12 each, followed
by Cumberland (10), Wake (7), Beaufort (6), Craven (6), Guilford (6),
Sampson (6), Cleveland (5), and New Hanover (5) counties.
By agency, 108 fire departments and fire protection agencies
have lost firefighters in the line of duty. The North
Carolina Department of Forest Resources has had the greatest number
with 18, followed by the Charlotte Fire Department (11) and the
Winston-Salem Fire Department (8). Seven agencies have lost four or more
members, and nineteen agencies have lost two or more
members.
By status, where known, career firefighter fatalities (57%)
outnumber volunteer firefighter fatalities (43%).
By age, where known, the youngest firefighter died at 18 and
the oldest firefighter died at 68. By age and status, where known, the
average age of career firefighter fatalities is 41. The average
age of volunteer firefighter fatalities is 43.
By cause, where known, the biggest killer of North
Carolina's firefighters is stress and overexertion (35%)
followed by burns or asphyxiation (19%), road-vehicle
accidents (18%), collapses (7%), struck by vehicles or
objects (7%), and aircraft accidents (6%).
By age and cause, where known, the most common cause of deaths for
ages 35 and under is burns and asphyxiation (35%) and road-vehicle accidents (24%).
For ages over 35, the most common cause of death is
overwhelmingly stress and overexertion (56%) with road-vehicle
accidents (13%) a distant second. By age 55, stress and
overexertion account for 73% of fatalities.
By day, the deadliest day of the year is September 7,
with six fatalities on that day. Four fatalities have occurred on both May 25 and November 6, and three fatalities have occurred on each of the days
February 8, February 13,
July 14, November 19, and November 30.
By year, the deadliest single year was 2003, with eight
duty deaths. The years 1973, 1982, and 1989 each recorded seven
deaths; the years 1976, 1977, 1979, and 2000 each recorded six
deaths.
By decade, the deadliest decades were the 1970s, with 38
duty deaths between 1970 and 1979. The 1980s recorded 37
fatalities, while the 2000s have already passed 30
fatalities.
Data Sources
The primary source for the information in this
article is the North Carolina Fallen
Firefighter's Foundation Database. Other databases
used include the
National Fallen
Firefighters Foundation, the
US Fire Administration Firefighter Fatality Database,
and the NIOSH
Firefighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program. The LODD sections of
Firehouse and
FireNews were also utilized.
Additional research was conducted using
America's Newspapers via
NewsBank via NC LIVE to locate both news articles and
obituaries. Access requires a password
available from many local libraries and colleges. General
Internet research was conducted using
Google.
Death certificates
and death certificate indexes were viewed on microfilm at
Olivia Raney Local History Library in Raleigh. Death
dates were also researched using the
Social Security Death Index.
The history sections of several fire department yearbooks
were utilized, notably from Asheville, Charlotte, and
Winston-Salem (the two towns and their fire departments
merged in 1913). The history sections of several official and unofficial fire department web sites
were also consulted, such as this list of
Charlotte firefighter fatalities.
Copies of News & Observer and Raleigh Times
articles about the Shelby and National Spinning Company
fires were also viewed on microfilm at
Olivia Raney library.
The Office of the State Fire Marshall
also published an excellent article on the Great
Shelby Fire in their
Fall
2005 Fire & Rescue Journal .
Information about first fatality Edward Peed was drawn from
microfilm newspaper articles,
Washington
Fire-Rescue-EMS, and
Early Black
Firefighters of North Carolina. Researchers should
also consult Sanborn Maps via NC LIVE
for a waterfront map and fire department details from 1901.
The town had five (!) fire companies at that time.
For aircraft accident information, the
NTSB Aviation
Accident Database was utilized.
Send Your Information
The author of this article seeks additional information or documentation
related to the following line-of-duty deaths:
Carl Beam (Cleveland, 12/24/77)
Timothy Bennett (Ellerbe, 6/18/89)
Grover Brinkley (Chapel Hill, 7/2/89)
William Countiss (Woodlawn-Sevier, 10/28/84)
Max Daniel (Julian, 2/8/84)
Russell
Dellinger (Collettsville, 11/19/84)
Carlos
Dorsett (Westside, 3/13/76)
Paul Farmer (West Jefferson, 6/12/86)
Billy
Fullbright (Ranlo, 7/12/77)
Robert Gamble (Whispering Pines, 10/12/84)
Herbert Garmon (Mooresville, 11/30/73)
Anthony
Gaylets (Morehead City, 6/14/73)
Rhett
Gulledge (Harrisburg, 6/18/73)
Marvin Honeycutt (Shepherd, 1/29/77)
Ronnie Hoots (Edneyville, 10/30/90)
Paul
Jarman (Harlowe, 1/30/86)
Carl Johnson (NCDFR, 8/20/03)
Jesse Jones (Wade, 9/14/78)
Robert
Kilpatrick (Brevard, 9/9/74)
James Lee (Arapahoe, 11/3/76)
James Lee (Wilson's Mills, 6/25/91)
Charles
Lowery (Lowell, 10/20/90)
Walter McNeely (Lake Toxaway, 4/30/79)
Danny
Owens (Newland, 12/9/76)
Bobby Pegram (Piney Grove, 10/18/74)
John
Robinson (Vanceboro, 3/13/89)
James Scott (Hamilton, 9/16/05)
James Spry (Laurinburg, 11/30/82)
Gerald
Tilghman (West of New Bern, 11/6/73)
Jimmie
Trent (Asheville, 11/13/75)
Franklin Winslow
(Aulander, 1/15/88)
Mail Mike with
your information.
Data Corrections
The author also welcomes comments, corrections, or additions
to any information contained in this article.
Mail Mike with
your information.
Related Links
North Carolina Fallen
Firefighter's Foundation
FireNews.net Parade Information, Event Times, Maps, Etc.
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- Submitted by Mike Legeros, CFP-7474
- FireNews.net Staff
Copyright © 2003 - 2006 -
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