Roanoke Island Volunteer Fire Department is a fully volunteer fire department protecting the Manteo and Wanchese towns here on the OuterBanks, OBX.
-----
Roanoke Island, located on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, is known for its famous "firsts" in America, including being the home of the first settlement in the New World by Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony as well as the being the birthplace of Virginia Dare, the first child born of English parents in America before the colony's mysterious disappearance. Staying in the tradition of "firsts", the Manteo Fire Department was the first on the Outer Banks, dating back to its start in 1928. According to Vernon Davis, a charter member of the department, they were little more than a bucket brigade, as they pulled an old chemical tanker around town by hand, to fight fires. From it's beginnings at a small location on the Manteo Waterfront, the Manteo Fire Department moved to its long-time location in downtown Manteo in 1930. In 1974, the Manteo Fire Department and the Wanchese Fire Department, joined together to form a unified department, known as the Roanoke Island Volunteer Fire Department. Today's firefighters work out of two stations on Roanoke Island, the North Station, located on Hwy. 64/264 in Manteo and the South Station, the department's newest station, built in 2010, which is located in the village of Wanchese.
