DurhamFire.net gives history, photos, new appreciation for Bull City firemen

Just about every little kid gets fascinated by firetrucks and firefighting at some point in their youth. 

The big red trucks; the sirens and lights; the uniforms and tools and the firehouse.

For some, the fascination with firefighting becomes a life's calling, one for which the glamour takes a distinct back seat to a culture of service and support, with firefighters putting their lives on the line every day to protect those of citizens.

Still, in the glint of the metaphorical eye at DurhamFire.net -- a pointedly un-official site, but one with terrific photography, history, stories and more -- you can still see that passion for a job that is a devotion to the public good.

It's filled with powerful photos like that at upper right (from the site, by J. Harrison and documenting the big fire at a building on E. Club Blvd. near I-85 earlier this year), and with history of how the Durham Fire Department got its start.

That history starts in the DFD's early days as an all-volunteer company, to the call for a professional company after a 1909 fire at Durham's City Hall, to a massive downtown fire in 1914 that gutted downtown after the water system failed -- leading directly to a switch from the Eno River to the Flat River for water, and the creation of Lake Michie as a water source. And it covers the controversial 1970 police-fire merger to a Public Safety department, a move unwound in 1985.

And there's memorials for the firefighters who've lost their lives in Durham service, from three who died on duty from 1957 through 1978, to Brad Roberts, the off-duty DFD'er who died last week after falling from a height while trimming tree limbs in a terrible accident.

Of course, there's plenty of videos and pictures, too, all of which makes this a must-visit site for anyone curious about how the DFD works, or who just wants to rekindle that youthful interest in firefighting.

Comments

[Todd P]

There's some good stuff there. I've always thought Durham should copy Memphis and open a museum based on the local fire department.

http://www.firemuseum.com/

It would be a big attraction for kids, and would give the city a place to put a few retired public safety vehicles for the kids to climb on - at least vehicles not destined for Princeville...