The Raleigh Fire Museum is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. We were incorporated with the state of North Carolina on March 25, 2010. We were granted federal tax-exempt status on September 23, 2010. Our EIN number is 27-2420541. Our original legal name was the Raleigh Fire Department Historical Society. It was changed to the Raleigh Fire Museum on February 14, 2012.
Contact
Raleigh Fire Museum
PO Box 31084
Raleigh, NC, 27622
raleighfiremuseum@gmail.com
919-964-1070
Officers
The current officers were elected on March 14, 2024:
John Rehbock, President
Alan Walters, Vice President
Mike Legeros, Secretary
Documents
- View our annual reports from 2014 to present.
- View our organizational documents (Google drive), including articles of incorporation and our by-laws.
- View archived meeting minutes from 2008 to 2017 (Google drive)
- View polices and procedures (Google drive)
About Our Organization
The Raleigh Fire Department has a rich history. Since 1912, the year that the career fire department was formed, the city has been served by 16 fire chiefs and over 1,500 uniformed and civilian fire department members. Many people have documented the department’s history, from WPA writers in 1936 to the scrapbooks of the Ladies Auxiliary beginning in 1951. Histories of the Raleigh Fire Department have been written by Elizabeth Davis Reid (1970), Capt. B.T. Fowler (1984), and Capt. Peter Brock (2002). Read more about the history of our histories.
In 2007, Battalion Chief Alan Walters and Historian and former firefighter Mike Legeros began discussing the concept of a historical society. In 2008, the first meetings were held with personnel, retirees, and civilians. The Raleigh Fire Department Historical Society was incorporated in 2010. Also that year, it was granted 501(c)3 tax-exempt status. They changed their organization name to the Raleigh Fire Museum in February 2012.
Among their many current projects is the operation of the Raleigh Fire Museum, which opened in June 2011. The museum is located in a classroom trailer at the Keeter Training Center. On display are hundreds of artifacts and photos that represent 150 years of firefighting in the Capitol City.
The founders of the organization were Gary Amato, David Barefoot, Jan Chamblee, Jeff Harkey, Tim Henshaw, Mike Legeros, Ronny Mizell, K.C. Ray, Tim Wall, and Alan Walters. Their time and energy was instrumental in creating the mission of the museum organization, and the means and ways to fulfill that mission.
Those who helped open the physical museum– from preparing the space to providing artifacts to documenting the grand opening– also included Steve Bartholomew, Tim Blaisdell, Ronald Campbell, Creighton Edwards, David Freeman, Dave Godfrey, Thomas Johnson, Frank McLaurin, Danny Poole, Brian Sherrill, Chad Singleton, Bobby Smith, Robert Upchurch, Kathy Walters, Steve Welch, and Lee Wilson.
The Raleigh Fire Museum conducts periodic business meetings. For information on dates, times, and locations, contact raleighfiremuseum@gmail.com.
This page was last updated April 26, 2026
