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Fire & Rescue History
- Havelock Fire Department formed so Havelock residents no longer depend on MCAS Cherry Point Fire Department and Newport Fire Department for fire response
- 1st station built for $5,600 for the structure of the building; $1,200 for the floor; interior completed by volunteers (Current building of the city planning department)
- 28 Chartered Members-all male
- Military Surplus 530 and Ashford Oil Company 1200 gal. ex-fuel truck in operation
- Notified of calls via telephone recall and 2 minute Civil Defense siren
- 1st Howe pumper purchased brand new; later sold for $1,000 (1971)
- 1936 Ward LaFrance purchased; sold for $600 to Sea Level Fire Department (1972)
- 1st Rescue Truck 1961 Ford Panel Truck donated to department in early 1970s (1972)
- 15 Motorola non-portable Alarm boxes and 5 Plectron Alarm boxes purchased for home notification of calls (1972)
- Havelock Rescue Squad created as part of the Havelock Fire Department (1973)
- 1974 Ford Bean purchased for $25,000 replaced the Ward LaFrance; sold for $25,000 to Broad and Gales Creek Fire Department
- 1st Ambulance purchased with a grant from the Governor's Highway Safety Fund-1974 Dodge
- All rescue squad members except for 9 went on strike because of a disagreement regarding the Havelock High School football game ambulance service (1974)
- First Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) course taught (1974)
- Call volume approximately 2 per week (1974)
- First paid personnel on duty; 1 per shift working 24 hours on and 48 hours off-Bill Creed, Doug Campen, Danny Willis; responded only with fire trucks, not ambulance or rescue truck (1975)
- Only paid personnel allowed to spend the night at the station (1975)
- May-Beta Sigma Phi Sorority donated a porta-power hydraulic ram system (1976)
- May-First time the rescue squad had 5 calls in one day-showed need for additional ambulance (1976)
- September-2nd ambulance purchased from Virginia; 1972 Chevrolet Suburban (1976)
- 1st woman to join the rescue squad-Eva Sermons; Cherrie Sanders and Betsy Olkowski were the 2nd and 3rd female members that joined shortly after Eva (1976)
- Brand new Rescue Truck purchased; originally voted down by the members to purchase but was a definite need and its 1st revealing was at the Christmas Party that year, wouldn't fit in bay produced need for new station (1977)
- Prestige van ambulance purchased new from Texas; created 3rd ambulance and Havelock has operated 3 ambulances since this purchase (1978)
- Calls exceeded 300 per year (1979)
- 1st Jaws of Life purchased with the assistance of Eddie Ellis and the community (1982)
- 1st paid fire chief-Jimmy Nobles (1982)
- City of Havelock switched to the Public Safety format for emergency services (1983)
- 1st sworn public safety officers-Don Lilly, Jim Drum, Kenny Rhodes (1983)
- Began building new facility which was designed by the man who designed the Asheboro zoo and had never stepped foot into a fire department until this one was built (1983)
- 1st "ice cream box" style ambulance purchased-1984 Braun (1984)
- New building complete which housed the police, fire, and rescue (1985)
- City started charging for EMS calls due to county initiating a user fee (1986)
- Havelock Rescue Squad awarded NC State Rescue of the year for their efforts to assist a young man pinned in his bed by a pine tree (1986)
- Havelock Rescue Squad Became ALS (Advanced Life Support) certified (1987)
- First squad in the county to go ALS as EMT-Intermediate (1987)
- Mary Green was the first person to start an IV (1987)
- Purchase of today's current Engine 3 AKA 2303; 1988 Federal Pumper LDH (1988)
- Purchase of today's rescue truck 2307; 1991 International Rescue LT (1991)
- Purchase of today's Engine 4 AKA 2304; 1992 Spartan Pumper (1992)
- Havelock Rescue Squad awarded NC State Rescue of the Year for rescuing a woman trapped in her car that was trapped under a tractor trailer filled with wood chips in a ditch filled with cold water (1992)
- Call volume increases to approximately 1,000 calls per year (1992)
- First off campus Paramedic class (1998)
- Havelock Rescue Squad became Paramedic level certified (1999)
- Staffed 2 Paramedic/Firefighters per shift working 24 hours on and 48 hours off (1999)
- Paid Fire Chief, Fire Marshall, and EMT-I/Firefighter (1999)
- Call volume tops 2,000 per year (2007)
- 3 paid staff promoted to Shift Captain (2008)
- 4th position added per shift; Paramedic/Firefighter (2009)
- Changed ambulance color to red (2009)
- Purchased Ladder231, the city's first quint; 2010 E-1 75 feet Quint (2010)
- Opened West End Station (2010)
- Filled 5 Paramedic/Firefighter positions per shift, 3 from the SAFER Grant (2010)
- Operations Chief Position created (0210)