The Raleigh Volunteer Fire Department
By Dennis Wolf
A Brief History of the Raleigh Area
Raleigh is an area of north-central Shelby County that was first settled in 1816 and is now part of the City of Memphis. Raleigh was incorporated as a town laid out on 51 acres on what was known as Sanderlin’s Bluff overlooking the Wolf River. Raleigh was the original county seat and location of the courts from 1824 to 1866. Shelby County’s first courthouse was located on land that was addressed many years later as 4216 Fayette Road. The land is now under the Northbound offramp for Austin Peay Highway and James Road. Raleigh lost its status as the county seat in 1866, and in 1867, the courthouse was dismantled and the stone was used to construct the Bartlett courthouse.
Raleigh was blessed with a natural spring that supposedly had curative properties, and many people went to Raleigh Springs to take the water. The water was also bottled and sold in drug stores. The spring water was said to treat “eczema, ulcers, sore throat, tonsillitis, gout, rheumatism, sronfula (an infection of the lymph nodes in the neck), summer complaint, acid diarrhea, neuralgia of stomach, nausea, gravel (coarse mineral salts from the kidney or bladder that are smaller than kidney stones), cystitis, catarrh (inflammation of mucous membranes of the air passages in the head and throat), teething, diseases of young children, cardiac weakness, dropsy (congestive heart failure), liver complaint, chronic diseases, torpid liver, dyspepsia, dysentery, jaundice, biliary colic, malaria, anemia, and sick headache.”[i]
In 1892, a grand 4-story, 100 room hotel, the Raleigh Inn, was built there by the B. I. Duke tobacco family of North Carolina (Figure 1). It was a popular place to stay when taking the waters, and it closed in 1902.
Figure 1 – The Raleigh Inn[ii]
After the hotel closed, A. S. Maddox opened the Maddox Seminary for Young Ladies in the old hotel building on September 23, 1903. The boarding school boasted fine, elegantly furnished buildings with modern conveniences and comprehensive courses of study, with special attention to the arts. About 100 young ladies were enrolled.[iii] The school closed in 1904.[iv]
In 1907, Charles B. James opened the Charles B. James Sanatorium in the old Raleigh Inn. At 2:45 a.m. on Tuesday, May 14, 1912, the sanatorium caught fire and burned to the ground. Due to the heroic efforts of the on-duty nurses, physicians, and night watchmen, all 35 patients were safely evacuated without injury. However, the hospital’s engineer, E. L. Griffith, was seen entering the burning structure. He was not seen after that, and his body was never found, so it was presumed that he died in the fire. The fire was first seen in the kitchen area, but it was also reported that the fire was started by a patient smoking in bed. The property loss was estimated at $100,000[v] ($3,296,897 in 2025 dollars).
As the water table dropped at the springs, and partly because of the discovery of the artesian aquafer under Memphis, the fortunes and prosperity of the area declined. The town surrendered its charter and returned to unincorporated status in 1912.[vi] Unincorporated Raleigh was annexed by the City of Memphis on January 1, 1973,[vii] but from 1954 until it was annexed, the Raleigh Volunteer Fire Department protected the community.
There is still some history from that time period in Raleigh. The Goodwinslow/Chapman House is the oldest house in Raleigh. It is a 12 room, 6-bedroom, 6,200 square foot house started in 1875 by William Washington Goodwin, an attorney who moved from Middle Tennessee to Memphis. The house was added onto in 1890 and 1900. At one time, the house was owned by Evelan Winslow “Buddy” Chapman and his wife, Pam. Leading a life of public service, Buddy Chapman was the only civilian Memphis Police Director from 1976 to 1983. He also served as an Executive Assistant to the Mayor, and was the executive director of CrimeStoppers of Memphis and Shelby County. The house sits about a third of a mile off the street at 4066 James Road,[viii] and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Raleigh Volunteer Fire Department
In 1954, construction began on a building that would house the offices of the Raleigh Utility Water District and serve as a fire station (Figures 2 and 3). The water system was scheduled to go online on December 1, and would serve an estimated 800 homes and businesses to start. The cost of the water utility system was $525,000 ($6,241,431 in 2025 dollars).[ix] Water rates were $3.75 for the first 2,000 gallons ($44.58 in 2025 dollars).[x] For comparison, the MLG&W rate for residential customers in 2025 is $6.40 for 2,000 gallons of water (this does not include the monthly meter charge).[xi] For residents outside of Memphis, the rate is $9.97 for the first 2,000 gallons.[xii]
Figure 2 – Raleigh Utility District Offices and Fire Station Under Construction
Figure 3 – The Raleigh Utility District and Fire Department Building
As development in the area increased, the residents realized that they needed fire protection. In 1954, the Raleigh Utility District starting laying water mains to serve the area and drew up plans for a fire department. On November 19, 1954, the Raleigh Volunteer Fire Department was organized. Officers were elected, and E. W. Clifton, the utility district’s superintendent, was the department’s first fire chief. The department had a pumper on order and used a loaner pumper until their engine was delivered.[xiii]
The Raleigh Volunteer Fire Department was well organized, equipped, and trained. The department had a large response area, and while some of the area had fire hydrants, a large portion did not. In these areas, the firefighters had to reply on the water carried in “booster tanks” on the apparatus. The Raleigh apparatus had 500-gallon booster tanks.
As part of the standard practice for fighting a structure fire, firefighters would pull (take hose off the truck) two lines with 95-gpm nozzles on each line. When used together, the flow rate was 190 gpm. Allowing for the water needed to fill the hose lines (approximately 37 gallons), the 500 gallons of water in the tank would be gone in just under 2½ minutes with both lines in use. This meant that the firefighters had to be judicious and skillful with the use and placement of hose streams.
To help extend the time firefighters could use hose lines without the benefit of a fire hydrant, other fire apparatus would respond and give their water to the attack pumper by connecting a hose line to it. By deftly operating the valves on the attack pumper, the pump operator could use the water from the second pumper to supply the fire attack hose lines and top off his booster tank. When the second pumper’s water was gone, the driver would disconnect the hose and head for the closest water source, be it a fire hydrant, pond, or stream, to refill his tank. If a third pumper was available, it would connect to the attack pumper and give its water to that pumper. When its water supply was gone, it would head to the closest water source to refill. If the water source was not too far away, the second pumper might be back by then and would reconnect to supply the attack pumper before it ran out of water. This water shuttle operation would continue until the fire was extinguished.
At 1:30 a.m. on April 7, 1955, the fire department responded to, and extinguished a fire of unknown origin at, the Stockmarket Grocery Store at 4443 Raleigh-LaGrange Road. The damage was described as “slight.”[xiv]
At approximately 4:00 p.m. on March 29, 1956, two different groups of people were digging for worms near a vacant house northeast of the intersection of Austin Peay Highway and Jones Road. An argument occurred, and one group started a fire in two-foot-high grass to drive the other group away. The fire spread to a vacant house and eventually burned approximately two acres. While Raleigh firefighters were fighting the fire, a juvenile onlooker discovered a man’s body in the grass approximately 180 feet from the house. The man had burned to death and had no identification. Sheriff’s deputies initiated an investigation to determine his identity, but they believed he was a transient.[xv]
On January 19, 1957, a Saturday, at 1:30 p.m., Raleigh Volunteer Firefighter A. E. Walmsley’s car was struck by another car at the fire scene at 4672 Egypt-Central Road. The person who struck Walmsley’s car was fined $40 for reckless driving.[xvi]
In August 1957, the fire department purchased a resuscitator for use on those who were overcome by heat or smoke, or those having a heart attack. Two firefighters, Dr. Hal Bennett and Al Walmsley, were trained to use the resuscitator.[xvii]
On Tuesday, January 7, 1958, at 1:30 p.m., the Germantown Volunteer Fire Department responded with the Raleigh Fire Department, the Collierville Fire Department, and the Forest Hill Volunteer Fire Department, the to the National Fireworks, Inc. site on Macon Road in Cordova (Figure 4). The Civil Air Patrol and Red Cross also responded. The Weyerhaeuser Company had leased seven acres of the 240-acre site and was storing baled wood fiber. A wood fiber pile that was 78 feet long, 15 feet wide, and 15 feet tall (17,550 cubic feet) caught fire, along with three buildings. The temperature was below freezing with light snow and a stiff wind. There were no hydrants, and between water carried on the apparatus of the four fire departments, and water trucked in by the Shelby County Penal Farm, and the C. B. Perry drilling company, firefighters used 10,000 gallons of water and knocked the fire down after a 9-hour battle. Firefighters protected the office of the National Fireworks Company, which was an exposure, and created a firebreak between the two wings of the building by destroying a connecting hallway. Germantown Fire Chief Philip McCall said it was so cold that the firefighters had to thaw the nozzles over the fire to get them to open. The Memphis Press-Scimitar reported that firemen were “baking on one side next to the fire and, freezing on the other side away from the fire.” Workmen had built a warming fire that got out of control and set a building on fire, which spread to the baled wood pulp and other buildings.[xviii] About 50 firefighters from the four departments responded.
Figure 4
Though the Nonconnah Creek is far from Raleigh, that did not stop the Raleigh volunteer firefighters from assisting with the response to the widespread flooding that occurred in southeast Memphis on May 9, 1958. A total of 4.88 inches of rain fell in 24 hours, which caused the creek to overflow. Hundreds of homes were flooded and the families were displaced. Raleigh firefighters assisted with evacuations, sandbagging, and other rescue work.[xix]
The Raleigh Fire Department was one of several fire and police departments from cities and communities around Memphis participating in Civil Defense rescue training in 1958. The training was divided into three sessions that year. The first session was June 30 at the Forest Hill Fire Department. The second session was July 7 at the Raleigh Fire Department. The third session was at the Whitehaven Fire Department on July 14. A rescue exercise held on July 19 capped off the training program.[xx]
On November 29, 1958, the department responded to a serious head-on motor vehicle crash on Raleigh-Millington Road at Homewood Drive. Two persons were trapped in the cars. It took fifteen minutes to extricate one man from his car. The sixteen-year-old driver of the other car was pinned in tight. This was long before the Jaws of Life was invented, and firefighters and other responders used cutting torches and a wrecker to remove the twisted metal from around the boy so he could be extricated. The extrication took 90 minutes, and a physician on the scene attended to the boy during the extrication. A total of five people were injured in the crash, and two were in serious condition.[xxi]
The Wilson family lost their home to a fire on March 23, 1959. The Raleigh Fire Department was notified at 2:30 a.m. of the fire at 3856 Covington Pike, which was three miles from the station. The family of five was able to safely evacuate just in time before the entire house was well involved. The fire started in a fuse box at the rear of the house and had been burning for some time before it was discovered.[xxii]
On June 12, 1959, a worker at the John A. Denie & Sons brick kiln on Raleigh-Frayser Road was seriously injured when he tried to turn on a switch in the drying kiln. The switch exploded in his face, knocking him unconscious. Raleigh firefighters and members of the Civil Air Patrol used a resuscitator to treat him.[xxiii]
While on routine patrol around 7:00 p.m. on August 31, 1959, Sheriff’s Deputies John Evans and M. J. Cianciola discovered a barn on fire at 3476 Cypress Road. The Raleigh Fire Department responded and protected exposures, as the barn was well involved when they arrived. The fire was started by a trash fire that got out of control. The barn was valued at $1,000 ($10,990 in 2025 dollars), and the owner lost $800 ($8,792 in 2025 dollars) worth of tools as well.[xxiv]
A large grass fire occurred around 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 13, 1960, atop a hill in Scenic Hills. A resident was burning trash and set the grass on fire, which spread to nearby grass and underbrush. The temperature was 49 degrees with a 9-mph north-northeast wind. The firefighters had difficulty getting the pumper to the top of the hill. Sightseers followed the fire truck and the cars of the volunteer firefighters to the scene, which clogged the roads and impeded access. The firefighters did a commendable job and prevented the fire from spreading to several nearby homes. In Figure 5, Al Walmsley (left) and Pete Reed (right) pull the booster hose off the truck to fight the fire.[xxv]
Figure 5 – Al Walmsley (left) and Pete Reed (right)
On March 20, 1960, a Sunday, just after 11:00 p.m., the department responded to the Lucas Trailer Park at 4340 Raleigh-Millington Road just north of Egypt-Central Road. The fire was in the office and was quickly extinguished by the firefighters. The damage estimate was $5,000.[xxvi] Today, the trailer park is known as the Pecan Circle Community.
At around 5:00 a.m. on Christmas Day, 1960, a fire destroyed the home and store located at 3897 Raleigh-Frayser Road. The owner had closed the store at 7:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve and left to spend the holiday with family members out-of-town. The department responded but was unable to save anything. The cause of the fire was unknown.[xxvii]
When a fire occurred in the community, Raleigh firefighters were notified by two methods. The first was the sounding of a large siren on top of the fire station. The second method was a phone call to their home or business. The phone call was especially important for volunteers who lived too far away to hear the siren. Mrs. Clara Walmsley, 74-years-of-age, was the person that called each firefighter to give them the address and nature of the alarm. Her son, Al Walmsley, was a volunteer firefighter. Mrs. Walmsley started doing this in 1959, and the fire department presented her with a service award in March, 1961.[xxviii] She continued to notify the firefighters until she passed away in May of 1962.[xxix]
In 1962, Raleigh was the fastest growing suburb in Shelby County in proportion to its size. The water system had started out in February 1955 with 599 customers, and 7½ years later had 1,810 customers. From June 1961 to June 1962, the number of water customers grew by 24%. The fire department had two paid firefighters and twenty volunteers. The fire department was funded by revenue from the water department. Because of the good water system and the capabilities of the fire department, the Tennessee Inspection Bureau rated the community as a Class 8 on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the best. This rating resulted in lower insurance premiums for property owners. As an example, the annual cost for fire insurance on a $15,000 home ($158,840 in 2025 dollars) dropped from $60.50 ($641 in 2025 dollars) to $46.00 ($488 in 2025 dollars), a 31.5% decrease.[xxx]
A delay in alarm caused by the initial call being placed to the wrong fire department was a factor in the fire that destroyed the home at 3336 Emmons Drive at Manning Drive on June 7, 1962. The caller called the Memphis Fire Department, who then relayed the call to the Raleigh Fire Department. By the time Raleigh firefighters arrived, the house, and a car, which had just been purchased by one of the occupants, were gone. The family of eight was not at home at the time of the fire.[xxxi]
Since the fire department started in 1954, the firefighters were alerted to an alarm by a siren on the roof of the fire station at 4238 James Road. That location today, at the northwest corner of James Road and Old Austin Peay Highway, is occupied by Exline’s Pizza. The firefighters responded to the station and checked the bulletin board for the address of the emergency, and then drove to the fire in their private automobile. For those living outside of the range of the siren, an individual phone call had to be made to alert them. The paid firefighters drove the engines to the call, and the volunteers responded to the scene in their private vehicles. To improve turnout time (the time it takes for firefighters to be alerted and start responding), in November 1962, the fire department contracted with Southern Bell Telephone & Telegraph Company for the installation of its group alerting system.
The group alerting system allowed the simultaneous notification of the firefighters. The on-duty dispatcher pushed a single button, and the home or business phones of all the firefighters rang. Firefighters received the location of, and directions to, the emergency. This eliminated the drive to the fire station to find the address of the call, which reduced response time significantly. If the line was busy, a tone sounded to indicate that there was an alarm and the dispatcher cut into the phone call. The installation cost was $1,350 ($14,296 in 2025 dollars), and the maintenance fee was $150 per month ($1,589 in 2025 dollars).[xxxii]
The Wilson family, who lived at 3750 Covington Pike, were fortunate in the early morning hours of January 28, 1963. Mr. Wilson awoke and discovered that the house was on fire. He alerted his family and called the Raleigh Fire Department. The family of five escaped “clothed but barefoot.”[xxxiii]
Not every call to the fire department is for a fire. In May 1963, the Raleigh Fire Department received a call that they passed on to the Civil Air Patrol Rescue Squad. The homeowner at 3212 Lammermuir Road heard a knock at his front door. He went to investigate and looked out the side glass. A large snake looked back at him. It seems the snake had crawled up the side of the door and was looking in the window. At that point, he did what most people do when they don’t know who to call: he called the fire department (who ya’ gonna call, not Ghostbusters). Not being fond of snakes, he retrieved his gun and went out the back door and around to the front of the house. The snake was still on the porch, and he did not want to shoot up his house, so he held his fire. When the snake slid down the house and into the yard, the homeowner let him have it, shooting five times. By this time, the three-man Rescue Unit had arrived. Not wanting to take any chances, the Squad opened up on the snake, also shooting it five times. At that point, the snake was not only merely dead, the snake was really most sincerely dead. The snake was indeed a big one, measuring 49 inches long. There was no report on what kind of snake it was.[xxxiv]
On December 5, 1963, a fire of unknown origin set two beds on fire in the one-story brick veneer home at 3410 Emmons. There was a 5-month-old boy lying on one of the beds. He received burns on one leg and both feet before his mother got to him. The mother got the baby and her three other children out of the house. The Raleigh Fire Department responded and extinguished the fire.[xxxv]
High winds fanned the flames of a house fire at 3123 Overbrook on the night of Thursday, July 16, 1964, while a delay in the alarm allowed the fire to grow. The neighbors initially called the Memphis Fire Department and were told that Memphis did not respond to Raleigh. Once notified, the Raleigh Fire Department responded and fought the fire, confining the damage to 50% of the home (Figure 6). The fire caused slight damage to the home next door. Raleigh firefighters John Roberts and Ed Allen suffered minor unspecified injuries while fighting the fire.[xxxvi]
Figure 6
Just before midnight on Monday, December 28, 1964, the fire department responded to a feeder cattle barn on fire at 7953 Deadfall Road. The address was the location of Memphis Cattle Feeders, a large cattle operation, and was almost 17 miles from the fire station. The caller told the dispatcher, “Unless some fire engines get here in a hurry, the barn is lost and everything in it. But we got all 7,500 head of cattle well out of the way.” Investigation showed that there was a delay of several hours before the fire department was called. Around 7:00 p.m., a smoldering fire, probably started by spontaneous combustion, was discovered in a bin of soybean hulls. Workers wetted down the bin hoping to contain the fire. Just before midnight, the fire spread from the soybean hulls to a bin of corn cobs. The corn cob bin burst into flames, and fire quickly shot through the roof of the barn. There were no fire hydrants, but firefighters obtained water from a 6,000-gallon water tank on the property. A 19-year-old farm worker was overcome by smoke, and firefighters treated him with the resuscitator. He was transported by ambulance to St. Joseph Hospital. The Collierville and Arlington Fire Departments provided mutual aid. The Millington, Bartlett, and Naval Air Station Fire Departments declined to respond. The barn was valued at $750,000 ($7,737,073 in 2025 dollars), and no loss estimate was available.[xxxvii]
Raleigh firefighters responded to a fire at the home at 4620 Bolen-Huse Road near Coleman Road on Sunday, January 3, 1965. The house was about 4½ miles from the station and set back about 360 feet from the road. When firefighters arrived, they found fire in the attic, and a still in operation in the kitchen. Firefighters initially thought the still may have caused the fire, but the fire could have been caused by defective wiring. The still was installed in a hole that had been chopped in the kitchen floor. This was a rental property, and the identity of the tenant(s) was unknown at the time of the fire. The 55-gallon still was sitting on a mound of dirt and brick under the house. Sheriff deputies destroyed the still and 116 barrels of mash.[xxxviii]
A fire destroyed the home at 3619 Old Brownville Road on Monday, March 29, 1965. The homeowner returned home around 6:00 p.m. and discovered the two-story home on fire. The fire was three miles from the fire station, and the Raleigh Fire Department responded two engines. The fire was too well advanced, and the $20,000 home was a total loss. The ten-room house was over 100 years old and had recently been renovated.[xxxix]
At 2:50 a.m. on Tuesday, April 12, 1966, lightning struck the home at 3491 Lehi Drive. The lightning strike cut off the electricity, blew a window out of the living room wall, sent nails flying from sheetrock, cracked walls, blew a radio across the den, and set some drapes on fire. The lightning strike caused $19,000 worth of damage (Figure 7). The family of three who lived in the house went across the street to a neighbor’s house and stayed there overnight. At 8:00 a.m., while the family was still at the neighbors’ house, the neighbors’ attic caught fire. Raleigh firefighters believed that lightning had hit both homes, and that the fire in the neighbor’s house smoldered for hours before it burst into flames.[xl]
Figure 7 – Lightning Strike at 3491 Lehi Drive
On December 17, 1966, a Saturday, at 2:45 a.m., Raleigh firefighters responded to the Handy Pantry No. 12 at 2976 Scenic Highway at James Road. Firefighters extinguished the fire and damage was heavy. During the overhaul and investigation, firefighters determined that the fire had been set to cover a burglary. It also appeared that the burglar(s) had fixed themselves something to eat, as cans of Vienna sausage, bread, cheese, lettuce, salad dressing, pickles, potato chips, and beer had been opened and eaten.[xli]
The fire department responded to a mutual aid call at 3026 Brunswick Road in Bartlett on Wednesday, April 17, 1968. Around noon, a lady had put a TV dinner in the oven and left the kitchen. When she returned a few minutes later, the stove was on fire. She tried to extinguish the fire with a garden hose but was unsuccessful. She went to her neighbors’ house for help. The neighbor was a sheriff’s deputy, and told his wife to call the Bartlett and Raleigh Fire Departments and the Sheriff’s Department. The neighbor then used the garden hose on the fire and almost had it out when the well pump stopped working. The Bartlett Fire Department arrived and had the fire almost under control when they ran out of water. The Bartlett engine had to go two miles to refill. When they got back to the scene, the entire house was on fire. Bartlett and Raleigh firefighters then concentrated their efforts on protecting exposures and preventing the fire from spreading.[xlii]
On Tuesday, July 23, 1968, at approximately 2:50 p.m., the Raleigh Volunteer Fire Department responded to a structure fire in the two-story split-level home at 3557 Partridge Cove in Scenic Hills (Figure 8). A man working nearby heard some loud, strange noises over the hill and went to investigate. The witness saw a man at a window, with his hair and clothing on fire, and “flames pouring out the window around him,” yelling for help. The witness yelled for the man to jump, but a flaming curtain fell on the man, and he then fell back into the burning house. The owners were not at home at the time of the fire and had locked the house. They said they did not have any company and did not expect any visitors, so the man’s identity was initially unknown. A week later, the body was identified through dental records, and the 30-year-old man was the brother-in-law of the homeowner.[xliii] When firefighters arrived, they found the house totally involved. Firefighters said that the fire originated in an upstairs rear room from an undetermined cause. The house, which was valued at $20,000, was a total loss.[xliv]
Figure 8 – Fatal fire at 3557 Partridge Cove
The department responded at 2:20 a.m. on November 15, 1968, to the house next door to 2944 Woodhills Drive. The homeowner at that address said her 4-year-old son woke her up screaming “Our house is on fire.” She saw that it was the house next door, and she called the fire department. The house, which was under construction and almost finished, was valued at $30,000 and was a total loss. Investigators said arson was suspected.[xlv]
Starting in 1968, the Raleigh Fire Department, in conjunction with the Raleigh Civic Club, sponsored an annual “Miss Raleigh Fire Prevention” contest. Raleigh was the only unincorporated community in Tennessee to sponsor such a contest. Miss Raleigh Fire Prevention for 1968 was Miss Deborah Tucker.[xlvi] The fire department also escorted Santa to the Raleigh Plaza Shopping Center in 1968 so the children could meet Santa (Figure 9). This was an annual event for the department.
Figure 9 – Santa on a Fire Engine, December 1968[xlvii]
At 3:30 p.m. on May 27, 1969, the Raleigh Fire Department recovered from Windermere Lake the body of a 15-year-old boy. The boy had left Gragg Elementary School early with two other students to go swimming. They had been swimming for about 15 minutes when the youth began to shout for help. His two friends, ages 13 and 16, said they tried to save him, but he was struggling and pulled them under the water twice. The got out of the water, called the Raleigh Fire Department, and then ran to the boys’ home to tell his mother. She said she had no idea her son planned to skip school and go swimming.[xlviii]
The second annual Miss Raleigh Fire Prevention Contest was held on Thursday, October 2, 1969, in the Coleman School auditorium. The winner was Miss Margie Summers. Her duties included promoting fire prevention efforts in Raleigh and meeting with Memphis and Shelby County officials during Fire Prevention Week.[xlix]
In the early morning hours of Tuesday, October 21, 1969, the family in the home at 3779 Covington Pike was asleep. At approximately 1:45 a.m., the husband awoke having difficulty breathing, and then his wife woke up, also having trouble breathing. This was before home smoke alarms were available, so they had no early warning. They immediately realized that their house was on fire. They got both of their children, ages 9 and 11, and made it out of the house just as parts of the structure started to fall in around them. The fire department responded, and arrived at 2:05 a.m. By then, the house was well involved. Firefighters protected exposures and extinguished what remained of the structure.[l]
On Thursday, May 14, 1970, at 2:55 p.m., the fire department responded to a structure fire in a home at 4171 Hobson Road near Kipling Avenue, about three miles from the fire station. The fire started in a storage room from an undetermined cause. Firefighters fought the stubborn fire for two hours before knocking it down. The home was heavily damaged, and no loss estimate was available.[li]
The third annual Miss Raleigh Fire Prevention Contest was held on Thursday, October 1, 1970 at Coleman School. The winner was Miss Kathie Parish. Her duties included promoting fire prevention efforts in Raleigh by touring Raleigh business districts and schools accompanied by Raleigh firefighters, speaking to various civic and business clubs, and meeting with Memphis Mayor Henry Loeb and Memphis Fire Chief Eddie Hamilton.[lii]
On Wednesday, November 18, 1970, a 92-year-old woman died in a fire in her home at 3322 Old Allen Road north of Arwine Road. The fire occurred at approximately 5:30 p.m. Firefighters believed that a blanket may have been thrown over a space heater, which caught fire and then set the inside of the house on fire. Firefighters called the state fire marshal to complete the investigation.[liii]
The Raleigh community experienced another fire fatality on Thursday, January 28, 1971. At about 1:16 p.m., the fire department received the alarm from a neighbor, who reported that the house at 3026 Laurencekirk Road near Duncansby Street was on fire. Two engines responded and had the fire extinguished within ten minutes of arrival. The 49-year-old male occupant was found in the den approximately 15 feet from a sliding glass door. Firefighters believe that he may have been overcome by smoke while trying to escape. Investigators said the fire started in the kitchen, and the $35,000 home was heavily damaged.[liv]
On April 8, 1971, the department responded to two houses on fire. The houses were at 4630 and 4638 Valley Springs Road and both were under construction and partially finished. The fire started in the back bedroom of one house and was spread by the wind to the second house. The loss was estimated at $20,000.[lv]
A fire occurred at the Raleigh Drug Store at 2984 Austin Peay Highway at 1:16 a.m. on Wednesday, May 26, 1971. Raleigh firefighters extinguished the fire and prevented the fire from spreading to the adjoining Commercial and Industrial Bank. The fire was started by an electrical short in a switch box. Damage was estimated at $50,000, but the store owner said he believed he could clean up the damage and have the store open later in the day.[lvi]
On Saturday, September 4, 1971, at 10:00 a.m., neighbors reported that the house at 3782 Walnut Road was on fire. Firefighters responded quickly and upon arrival found fire coming from the attic. The fire was knocked down in ten minutes. The preliminary investigation revealed that a bird had apparently carried a still-lit cigarette into its nest, which set the eave on fire. The fire then extended into the attic. The owner of the house was out of town.[lvii]
On September 21, 1971, a Tuesday, at 8:04 p.m., the fire department responded to a structure fire at 3379 Plum Road near New Raleigh Road, about two miles from the station. The front of the structure was a vacant store, and a family was living in two rooms in the rear of the building. The firefighters extinguished a small fire that had been started by a gas heater. Seven hours later, at 3:05 a.m., the fire department responded to the same address and found the building to be well involved. The family living in the rear of the building was able to flee to safety. Firefighters were unable to determine the cause of the second fire.[lviii]
The fourth annual Miss Raleigh Fire Prevention Contest was held on Thursday, September 30, 1971 at Coleman School. The winner was Miss Vicki Garey. Her duties included promoting fire prevention efforts in Raleigh and meeting with Memphis and Shelby County officials during Fire Prevention Week. She led the fire prevention parade and also attended civic functions. On October 5, she appeared on WREC-TV’s Good Morning From Memphis show. She joined Santa in December, visiting shut-in children.[lix]
At 4:30 a.m. on August 26, 1972, the fire department responded to a single vehicle crash on Raleigh-LaGrange Road east of Covington Pike. Witnesses said the driver lost control and went up an embankment. The car flipped over, and the two occupants were able to self-evacuate with minor injuries. The car caught fire and “burnt to a crisp (Figure 10).”[lx]
Figure 10 – MVC with Fire
The fifth annual Miss Raleigh Fire Prevention Contest was held on Thursday, September 21 1972 at Raleigh Spring Mall during the Malls’ first birthday celebration week. The winner was Miss Debbie Byrd. Her duties included promoting fire prevention efforts in Raleigh, meeting with Memphis and Shelby County officials during Fire Prevention Week, appearing on WREC-TV’s Good Morning From Memphis show, and attending other civic functions. Since Memphis was annexing Raleigh at the end of the year, Miss Byrd was the last Miss Raleigh Fire Prevention.[lxi]
The City of Memphis annexed the 13.02 square mile Raleigh community on January 1, 1973 under Ordinance Number 324. Some members of the Raleigh Fire Department became Memphis Fire Department firefighters and dispatchers, and Shelby County Fire Department firefighters. Raleigh Fire Station 2 at 5380 Egypt Central Road became Shelby County Fire Department Station 10, which today is Shelby County Fire Station 60, following a renumbering of the apparatus.
The members of the Raleigh Fire Department served their community with pride and diligence for nineteen years, protecting both life and property. This is a partial list of members of the Raleigh Volunteer Fire Department, whose names I found while doing research for this article.
- Ed Allen, firefighter
- Hal Bennett
- Al Branch, fire chief
- Paul Cagle, firefighter
- W. Clifton, fire chief
- Ken A. Doerr, captain. Ken went to the Memphis Fire Department and became a dispatcher.
- Frank Ferrell, firefighter. Frank served as a Reserve Firefighter at the Bartlett Fire Department for decades.
- Buddy Johnson, firefighter
- E. Laisle, captain
- Joe McDaniel, firefighter, who owned the Raleigh Plaza Gulf in the 1960s through the 1980s.
- Jerry G. Pommer, firefighter
- Bruce Proctor, firefighter
- Pete Reed, firefighter
- John Roberts, lieutenant
- Al Walmsley, firefighter
- Emory Wilkes, assistant chief
[i] The Raleigh Inn, Season 1903 (Memphis Public Library)
[ii] https://www.historic-memphis.com/memphis/raleigh-inn/raleigh-inn.html
[iii] The Commercial Appeal, September 22, 1903, page 7
[iv] The Commercial Appeal, September 26, 1976, page G7
[v] The Commercial Appeal, May 15, 1912, page 8
[vi] Tennessee historical marker at James Road and Old Austin Peay.
[vii] https://shelbycountytn.gov/DocumentCenter/View/21645/Annexation-Ordinances-history?bidId=
[viii] https://www.historythroughhomes.com/post/goodwinslow–chapman-house-oldest-in-raleigh
[ix] The Commercial Appeal, September 5, 1954, page 10
[x] The Commercial Appeal, November 17, 1954, page 37
[xi] https://www.mlgw.com/images/content/files/pdf_rates/W1 Jan22.pdf
[xii] https://www.mlgw.com/images/content/files/pdf_rates/W2 Jan22.pdf
[xiii] The Commercial Appeal, November 17, 1954, page 37
[xiv] The Memphis Press-Scimitar, April 7, 1955, page 19
[xv] The Commercial Appeal, March 30, 1956, page 46
[xvi] The Memphis Press-Scimitar, January 22, 1957, page 20
[xvii] The Memphis Press-Scimitar, August 20, 1957, page 4
[xviii] The Commercial Appeal, January 8, 1958, page 15
[xix] The Commercial Appeal, May 10, 1958, page 1
[xx] The Memphis Press-Scimitar, June 28, 1958, page 7
[xxi] The Commercial Appeal, November 30, 1958, page 1
[xxii] The Memphis Press-Scimitar, March 25, 1959, page 19
[xxiii] The Commercial Appeal, June 13, 1959, page 5
[xxiv] The Memphis Press-Scimitar, September 1, 1959, page 9
[xxv] The Memphis Press-Scimitar, March 14, 1960, page 4
[xxvi] The Commercial Appeal, March 21, 1960, page 15
[xxvii] The Commercial Appeal, December 26, 1960, page 14
[xxviii] The Memphis Press-Scimitar, March 11, 1961, page 6
[xxix] The Memphis Press-Scimitar, May 31, 1962, page 38
[xxx] The Commercial Appeal, June 23, 1962, page 22
[xxxi] The Memphis Press-Scimitar, June 7, 1962, page 23
[xxxii] The Commercial Appeal, November 13, 1962, page 15
[xxxiii] The Memphis Press-Scimitar, January 28, 1963, page 5
[xxxiv] The Memphis Press-Scimitar, May 4, 1963, page 9
[xxxv] The Memphis Press-Scimitar, December 6, 1963, page 11
[xxxvi] The Memphis Press-Scimitar, July 17, 1964, page 14
[xxxvii] The Commercial Appeal, December 29, 1964, page 1
[xxxviii] The Memphis Press-Scimitar, January 5, 1965, page 10
[xxxix] The Memphis Press-Scimitar, March 30, 1965, page 23
[xl] The Memphis Press-Scimitar, December 17, 1966, page 3
[xli] The Memphis Press-Scimitar, December 17, 1966, page 3
[xlii] The Commercial Appeal, April 18, 1968, page 58
[xliii] The Commercial Appeal, August 1, 1968, page 24
[xliv] The Memphis Press-Scimitar, July 24, 1968, page 2
[xlv] The Commercial Appeal, November 16, 1968, page 34
[xlvi] The Memphis Press-Scimitar, September 17, 1970, page 8
[xlvii] The Memphis Press-Scimitar, December 12, 1968, page 3
[xlviii] The Commercial Appeal, May 28, 1969, page 13
[xlix] The Memphis Press-Scimitar, October 9, 1969, page 2
[l] The Memphis Press-Scimitar, October 21, 1969, page 4
[li] The Commercial Appeal, May 14, 1970, page 50
[lii] The Commercial Appeal, October 4, 1970, page 12
[liii] The Memphis Press-Scimitar, November 19, 1970, page 26
[liv] The Memphis Press-Scimitar, January 29, 1971, page 18
[lv] The Memphis Press-Scimitar, April 9, 1971, page 17
[lvi] The Memphis Press-Scimitar, May 26, 1971, page 30
[lvii] The Memphis Press-Scimitar, September 4, 1971, page 16
[lviii] The Memphis Press-Scimitar, September 23, 1971, page 19
[lix] The Memphis Press-Scimitar, October 7, 1971, page 48
[lx] The Memphis Press-Scimitar, August 26, 1972, page 3
[lxi] The Memphis Press-Scimitar, September 28, 1972, page 7