PETER B. CARTER was born in New Jersey in August of 1870. He was the son of Daniel and Mary Carter. Daniel Carter was working as a laborer on a farm in North Hanover Township, Burlington County NJ at the time of the 1880 census. Daniel Carter later live and work in Trenton NJ, where he was a constable, and is not to be confused with Daniel A. Carter, chief of the Camden Fire Department in the early 1880s. 

Peter B. Carter married around 1886. He first appears in Camden City Directories in 1888, living at 332 Stevens Street, working as a salesman. He does not appear in City Directories again until 1897. The 1897 and 1898 Camden City Directory show him living with his wife Elmyra at 1102 South 3rd Street, working as a meat cutter in 1897 and as salesman for Kolbe, Baker & Company the following year. He was at the same address, working as a driver in the 1899 directory. 

Peter B. Carter was appointed to the Camden Fire Department on November 29, 1899. At the time of the 1900 Census he was serving with Hook and Ladder Company 1 which operated out of the Fire  Department Headquarters building on North 5th Street at Arch Street. 

Peter Carter and his family were still living at 1102 South 3rd Street as late as 1906. When the Census was enumerated in 1910 he was then living at 329 Chestnut Street with his wife of 14 years, Elmira, and daughters Mary and Mildred. The Carters were still living at this address as late as the spring of 1918.

Six weeks prior to the census, the Reeves Garage, a large commerce building at 106-108 North Seventh Street, was destroyed in a spectacular fire and explosion on March 16, 1910. Night Watchman Albert Bell discovered heavy fire roaring in the basement about 1:30 A.M. He drove his vehicle to fire headquarters and reported a verbal alarm. As the blaze spread quickly, a second alarm was transmitted shortly after arrival. As Hosemen John Lennox and John Lutts of Engine Company 2 were advancing a big line near the blazing building a tremendous explosion carried them twenty feet across the street.

This mishap probably saved the lives of both members in that the blazing building literally blew apart, propelling broken masonry with the force of shrapnel. The west wall of the garage penetrated the adjacent Lutheran Church, leaving a gaping hole in the church wall. A general alarm was sounded following the explosion. Lennox and Lutts suffered lacerations and bruises as did Captain Carter of Hook & Ladder Company 1. Twenty-three automobiles were destroyed in the blaze with an estimated loss of $80,000.

On July 29th of 1915, after a career that spanned four decades, Chief John A. Stockton retired effective October 1st. He was succeeded as Chief by Peter B. Carter. Chief Carter would serve until 1926, during which time the city of Camden saw much growth and several large fires. Under Chief Carter's administration, the last of the horse-drawn units would be motorized. 

On January 3, 1915, one of the worst fires in Department history occurred at Kaighns Point and the Delaware River, South Camden. The fire was discovered in the men's waiting room of the Reading Terminal. Fanned by frigid 40 MPH winds off the river, the fire rapidly involved the ferry house and jumped Kaighn Avenue, igniting frame umbrella sheds and over one hundred frame passenger coaches. Box 31 at Front Street and Kaighn Avenue was pulled at 5:55 A.M. First alarm units were greeted by a near conflagration as the fire swept eastward into the big lumber mill of C.B. Coles & Sons, and simultaneously southward igniting frame buildings in the Dialogue Shipyard. Large burning embers floating on the water, set fire to a ship on the river. Four alarms plus numerous calls for mutual aid halted this blaze that caused injuries to 150 persons including more than 100 fire fighters. A field hospital was established in the offices of the C.B. Coles Company by Dr. Maldeis of Homeopathic Hospital to treat the numerous injuries. He was assisted by the Department Fire Surgeon, Dr. Schellinger. In the history of the Department, never had so many firemen been injured at a single incident. 

January 6, 1915, the Department again responded to the Borough of Collingswood on mutual aid for a fire at the Enterprise Wall Paper Company. Two members of the Department were seriously injured by falling walls. Battalion Chief George Wade and Hoseman William Laird were hospitalized for several weeks, with crushed limbs. 

Another disastrous fire occurred on March 27, 1915 at the plant of the Collings Carriage Company at Front and Arch Streets, center city. The three-story factory was used to build automobile bodies. John Ashton, the principal clerk for the Pennsylvania Railroad, saw the flames and pulled Box 51. Box 52 was also transmitted by employees of the carriage plant. The fire started in a varnish room located on the top floor at the southwest corner of the building. The afternoon blaze was fed by varnish and other inflammable materials within the building. The officer of the first due engine ordered a general alarm on arrival, as fire raced through the factory. The fire brigade of the Pennsylvania Railroad responded to assist Fire Fighters and while doing so, the whistle blew at the Van Sciver furniture factory also summoning its fire brigade as several nearby plants were threatened. While operating on the roof of the burning factory, some twenty Camden Firemen heard an ominous cracking sound. As they leaped across a shaft to the roof of an adjoining two-story building, the roof of the blazing factory collapsed with a deafening roar. Four companies of men narrowly escaped with their lives. With the assistance of the Industrial Fire Brigades, the blaze was brought under control by late afternoon. Damage exceeded $100,000.

A near conflagration in the Village of Gibbsboro at the Lucas Paint Works summoned a mutual aid response from the Department on August 1, 1915. Fire threatened to destroy the entire residential district of Gibbsboro, a community without local fire services. Camden Fire Fighters drafted from the Gibbsboro Lake and contained the fire to the factory complex. This was one of Camden's first mutual aid responses with motorized apparatus. Also during 1915, the Haddon Heights Volunteer Fire Company purchased the former apparatus of Engine Company 3, a Clapp and Jones steamer.

In January 2,1916, Camden Fire Fighters performed gallant service at the scene of a conflagration involving the Taubel Hosiery Mills in Riverside. Gale force winds and sub-zero temperatures created punishing conditions for fire fighters.

Something akin to a miracle occurred on the frigid night of January 11, 1916 at the State Street Methodist Episcopal Church, Sixth and State Streets, North Camden. At 10 P.M., three alarms were transmitted in rapid succession for a serious fire involving the main auditorium of the church. Heavy fire conditions extended to destroy the roof, the organ loft, the altar, Sunday School classrooms, and the entire pew area throughout the auditorium. When the blaze was finally extinguished, all that remained standing were four granite walls. On the south side of the building along State Street, was a magnificent stained glass window of gigantic proportion depicting Christ breaking bread with Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus. The window had inexplicably withstood the flames and heat. The scene from the life of Christ was not blistered, scorched or marred in anyway. It has never been retouched and still stands as a miracle, surviving one of the most disastrous church fires in City history. Chief of Department Peter Carter was injured at this incident when he fell through a passageway between the auditorium and the school building. He was hospitalized for several weeks. Captain Joseph Maxwell and Fireman Steward Bakley of Hook & Ladder Company 1, Fireman John A.S. Hunt of Engine Company 3, and Fireman William McCauley of Chemical Company 1 were injured when the church roof collapsed on them. Under heavy smoke conditions and following some difficulty, the members were able to extricate themselves, three of them safely. Captain Maxwell was admitted to the hospital for a brief stay. 

On April 6, 1916, the Department's fleet became fully motorized with twenty-five pieces of apparatus and vehicles. On that date Ladder Company 2 was the last unit to relinquish its horses, quite reluctantly among many of its members. Contemporary fire fighters cannot understand the degree of personal affection and the bond that existed between the old time fireman and his beloved steeds. Fire horses were not regarded as firehouse pets or mascots, as were other animals like dogs. Firemen considered their horses to be an integral part of the team, with almost human like qualities and a level of affection that transcended anything even akin to a master's love for his pet.

Upon full motorization, twelve horses with eleven sets of double harnesses and one single harness were given to the Highway Department. Another sixteen horses and harnesses were privately sold and the proceeds of the sale in an amount of $1952.50 were donated to the Firemen's Pension Fund. Ten days after the Department became fully motorized, the last horse was sold thus ending a memorable era. 

Today's fire fighter can hardly appreciate the tremendous burden and extraordinary performance, that those magnificent fire horses were so famous for. Imagine a bitterly cold night in the dead of winter, as Engine Company 3 responded first due on the Fourth Alarm to North Camden. A two horse hitch pulling a 3,000 pound brass and iron steamer at full gallop, non-stop from Ferry Avenue to State Street. Upon arriving at the scene, the horses in a full sweat would be uncoupled from the apparatus and made to stand patiently by for hours, in howling arctic winds, often immersed in choking and blinding smoke, without relief. These animals were creatures of rare and remarkable disposition.

The glorious days of the magnificent fire horse and the old time fireman have long since passed, replaced by the diesel belching monsters of the modem fire service. But perhaps still somewhere in time, from very long ago, the distant sound of a clanging bell and the sharp clatter of hoofs can be heard, as Engine Company 3 rumbles up Broadway.

The annual report of the Department for the year 1916 included the following inventory on apparatus and vehicles: 

In 1916, the Department occupied eleven firehouses throughout the city; seven of which were single unit stations, and the remaining as double unit quarters. Camden became one of the very first fully motorized and fully paid fire departments in the United States. While some departments were fully motorized earlier but still had volunteers, others were fully paid sooner, but still used horses.

During 1916, Fire Headquarters was renovated by William Wrifford at a cost of $9450. New furnishings and other related work increased this expenditure to $11,686.

On April 6,1916, Engine Company 8 was organized as a conventional fire company in the former quarters of Chemical Company 2 at 617 Kaighn Avenue, South Camden. Engine 8 would share the firehouse with Hook & Ladder Company 2 which occupied the adjoining bay at 619 Kaighn Avenue.

On March 27,1917, City Council created a Public Safety Committee. The purpose of the committee was to organize and designate police and firemen to guard public buildings; utilities and military armories during the war. A special badge with individual number was issued to each designated member of both departments to signify war time security.

During 1918, the City of Camden annexed the Village of Yorkship from Haddon Township, New Jersey. This residential community, originally built during the First World War to provide housing for thousands of families employed at the New York Shipyards in South Camden, was later renamed Fairview Village. This section extended the City to the far regions of South Camden, beyond what had been Morgan Village and the city limits along the Newton Creek. 

On March 3, 1918, eighteen large trolley cars were destroyed in a blaze at the Public Service Railway Company in South Camden. The fire was discovered about 4:30 A.M. when two Motormen entered the barn to take out their cars. Firemen could not advance hoselines to the seat of the fire due to closely parked trolleys and the lack of space to maneuver. Engine companies stretched lines to the roof and battled the flames under punishing conditions of extreme heat and heavy smoke. The damage was confined to a single barn as several new trolley cars were saved. The fire was thought to have been set by a disgruntled employee. The damage from fire loss was estimated at $150,000. Just a week earlier, thirty brass handles had been stolen from the same building.

In August 1918, Engine Company 9 was organized as a conventional fire company in the former quarters of Hose and Chemical Company 1 at 27th and Federal Streets, East Camden. Engine 9 would operate as a two piece unit, utilizing one of the chemical company's apparatus. Engine 9 would share the firehouse with Hook & Ladder Company 3 which occupied the adjoining bay.

A serious fire occurred on September 11, 1918, at the New York Ship Yard, Broadway and Morgan Streets, South Camden. The facility when opened during the first world war, was the largest private ship building installation in the United States. The fire started in the metal shop on lower Broadway above the Newton Creek. At the time of the blaze, thousands of spectators lined Broadway during a Liberty Bond Parade, while sixteen Navy Destroyers were under construction on the open ways just west of the burning buildings. As the ships were vital to the prevailing war effort, fire fighters held a defensive position between the main body of fire and the exposed ships. Mutual aid from Camden County and the City of Philadelphia was summoned to control the blazing fire buildings while Camden Fire Fighters succeeded in saving the seriously exposed Destroyers. U.S. Marines from League Island assisted Police in controlling the throngs of spectators that crowded the surrounding area to view the blaze.

With the annexation of Fairview, construction began in 1919 for a new fire station at 2500 Morgan Boulevard, South Camden. While new apparatus for Engine Company 10 and Ladder Company 4 was delivered in May 1920, the building would not become operational until its completion on September 16th. Engine 10 entered service as a one piece unit with a 1920 Robinson 750 GPM pumper, and Ladder 4 with a 1920 American LaFrance City Service Truck with chemical tank. These new quarters when opened for service was the only firehouse in the Department never to have held horses.

By the end of 1919 Chief Peter Carter and his wife and family had moved to 1507 Baird Boulevard in the Parkside section of Camden. Many of Camden's leading businessmen were their immediate neighbors. His daughter Mary Carter graduated from Camden High School as member of the Class of 1923.

Under the administration of Chief Carter, the first black firemen were were hired by the Camden Fire Department in 1920. In those years virtually all fire companies nationwide were segregated, as were the armed forces of the United States. For many years Engine Company 1 at the South 4th and Pine Street firehouse was the only black unit in Camden's Fire Department. It should be noted that the racial make-up of the city in 1920 was far different than what it was 30, 50, and 80 years later. 

Well respected by his peers across the country, Chief Carter was elected treasurer of the International Association of Fire Engineers in 1920 and 1921.

By action of the New Jersey Legislature, a state civil service authority was enacted on January 1, 1921 establishing standards for the selection and promotion of Police and Fire Personnel at the local government level, based on the merit system. This enactment precluded the long standing spoils system where political patronage had been the principal means by which appointments were made to the Uniformed Force. Also on January 1,1921, the Department adopted the 84 hour work week by implementing a two platoon system. This new schedule replaced the old one platoon, continuous duty cycle. 

In 1921, the Department occupied twelve firehouses throughout the city among eleven Engine Companies; four Ladder Companies; and three Battalions. Also during 1921, the installation of the final leg of a municipal fire alarm system begun in 1872, was completed by extending terminal coverage to the Fairview section of the City. Cable plant and alarm boxes had been previously extended to the East Camden and Cramer Hill sections, and the far regions of South Camden during the first decade of the new century. Fairview now completed "the loop" among several hundred signal stations. Also during 1921, the Department abolished the rank of Lieutenant and established a two tier position of Captain in both Junior and Senior grade. 

Another conflagration originated in the Sargol Shoe Store at 455 Kaighn Avenue, South Camden, during the early morning hours of December 14, 1921. Police Officer Arthur Levington while walking his beat along Broadway near Kaighn Avenue, smelled the strong odor of pungent wood smoke. Upon rounding the corner at Kaighn Avenue, Levington saw flames shooting from the top floor windows and quickly turned in the alarm. By the time Engine 8 and Ladder 2 arrived first due, all three floors of the shoe store were blowing heavy fire out the rear. The shoe store had been part of the Toone and Hollinshed Department Store. Only a door separated both properties at an elevator shaft. As units scrambled to get water on the blaze, the fire rapidly communicated up the shaft to involve the Toone and Hollinshed Mercantile. This property erected in 1881 measured 60 x 100 feet and was the City's first Department Store. The mercantile was heavily stocked with goods and wares at the height of the Christmas shopping season. Greater Alarms were transmitted in quick succession. Companies advanced lines to the roof of the exposure to gain a vantage position from which to darken the fire in the shoe store, but the blaze extended to involve the top floor of the mercantile. Several fire fighters nearly fell to their death when the tin roof on which they stood  froze over with encrusted ice despite extreme heat from the fire. Fireman Charles Gladney, Aide to Assistant Chief Patterson, was saved from certain death while working on the roof. He fell and began a perilous slide to the street. At the last moment, a fast and tenuous grasp by brother fire fighter averted tragedy. As the blaze illuminated the surrounding neighborhood, roof positions became untenable as companies were withdrawn to the street.

Adjoining the shoe store was the Sugar Bowl at 451 Kaighn Avenue, a well known confectionery. Only through the extraordinary efforts of fire fighters was the fire prevented from extending to this property. Numerous master streams poured tons of water on the blaze before it was finally brought under control nearly six hours after it began. Although the fire did not reach the first two levels of the mercantile, smoke and water damage took its toll upon the stock on the lower floors. Toone and Hollinshed sustained $175,000 in damage while the adjoining shoe store was reduced to ruins. The mercantile had suffered $50,000 damage in another blaze on August 8, 1913 when the property was struck by lightning during a fierce summer storm.

Another tragic blaze occurred on January 18, 1922 at the Economy Department Store, 427 Kaighn Avenue, South Camden. Companies responding to an alarm from Box 34 at Broadway and Kaighn Avenue arrived to find what they thought was a minor fire, amid light smoke conditions. But while Engine Company 8 was stretching the first line, the fire blossomed with such intensity that the first floor lit up and became a sea of flames. As Greater Alarms were quickly transmitted, the fire entered a broad staircase on the main floor and in minutes spread upward to involve all floors of the building. Heavy stream appeared to have little effect on the blaze as members gained access to the roof via aerial ladder in hopes of confining the fire to the original building. Captain Martin Carrigan was fatally injured while fighting this fire.

In May of 1922 Chief Carter went to San Francisco, California as a member of the advance committee organizing the attended the meeting of the meeting of International Association of Fire Engineers which was held in August of that year.

On January 1, 1923 the City of Camden adopted the commission form of government and reorganized the Police and Fire Departments as Bureaus under the jurisdiction of a Public Safety Commissioner.

On June 1, 1923 the Department organized a Fireman's Band. This unit consisted of some twenty members with musical talents among a variety of instruments and was reputed to be quite good. This band not only served the Department at official functions, but was also asked to attend other municipal and civic events to provide appropriate musical accompaniment. The band actively functioned well into the nineteen-forties.

A blaze badly damaged the Steamboats Columbia, Princeton and the Twilight on October 17, 1923. The old riverboats were moored at the yards of the Camden Shipbuilding Company at Fifth Street and the Delaware River, North Camden.

On the following morning of October 18, 1923, the Department sent two engine companies on mutual aid to the Borough of Clementon to assist numerous county fire companies in battling a blaze along Erial Road north of the railroad. Several homes were destroyed in this fire.

During July 1924, Engine Company 11 was organized as a conventional fire company in the former quarters of Hose and Chemical Company 2 at 27th Street and Hayes Avenue, Cramer Hill. This reorganization would provide the East Camden and Cramer Hill regions of the City with the services of a second engine company.

During the evening of November 17, 1924, units of the 3rd Battalion were placed on standby for a mutual aid response to Atlantic City, New Jersey. A serious fire on the Boardwalk between Virginia and Pennsylvania Avenues, destroyed three hotels and involved the Steel Pier. This request for mutual aid standby was later cancelled.

A back fire from a heater furnace caused a blaze that destroyed the Hitchner Wall Paper Company at Fifth and Mickle Streets, South Camden. About 5:00 AM on the morning of December 10, 1924, Watchman Harry Jensen was stirring the coals in the furnace chamber when a backdraft occurred. He ran for a fire extinguisher but by the time he returned, the entire room was ablaze. A passerby, Mrs. Anna Patterson, pulled the nearby alarm box to summon the Fire Department. Chief of Department Peter Carter was delayed in arriving at the scene as his Aide, Fireman Maurice Foley, was involved in an automobile accident on Haddon Avenue while responding to pick up the Chief. When he did arrive. Chief Carter transmitted the "three threes", the telegraph signal ordering a general alarm response to the fire. Chief Carter found the wall paper factory heavily involved with dense acrid smoke blanketing the neighborhood, making it nearly impossible to breathe. Residents on the south side of the fire building found their wooden window shutters and rear sheds in the backyards igniting from severe radiant heat.

Quick action by firemen extinguished these extension fires and prevented the blaze from spreading further. Chief Carter requested mutual aid from the Philadelphia Fire Department and Engine Companies 1 and 6 responded to assist. The damage from this latest fire was estimated at $ 100,000. The plant had been the scene of several previous smaller blazes.

On January 19,1925, Fireman John Reilly of Engine Company 4 made the Supreme Sacrifice in the line of duty. About 9:30 P.M. that Monday evening, Engine 4 turned out on a phone alarm reporting an oil stove fire in an occupied building near Second and State Streets, North Camden. The fire occurred in the residence of Max Kosh, located above his grocery store. Upon arrival, Firemen John Reilly and Albert Reauber carried a large copper portable extinguisher to the second floor. The flames were quickly extinguished and the nozzle closed. Suddenly, the fire extinguisher exploded like a bomb. Fireman Reilly was struck in the face by pieces of the fragmented appliance. He was killed instantly. Fireman Reauber sustained serious lacerations and bruises, requiring an overnight admission at Cooper Hospital. Probationary Fireman John Reilly was thirty-five years old and a member of the Department for seven months He had become quite popular among the members and neighbors of Engine Company 4.

On July 27, 1925 a fire at the Bantivoglio & Son junk yard in the 200 block of Division Street resulted in the injury of four members of Engine Company 7, when a brick wall collapsed on them. Chief Carter, who was on the scene directing firefighting efforts, saw the wall collapse and directed rescue efforts. One firefighter, Nicholas Romaine, died several years later as a result of injuries sustained in this incident.

In 1926, Thomas Nicholas was appointed Chief of Department succeeding Chief Peter B. Carter. Nicholas was the first Chief to be appointed by the merit system of the newly established civil service authority.

Peter B. Carter worked as a salesman for a supply house for a few years after leaving the Camden Fire Department. At the time of the 1930 Census Peter and Elmyra Carter were still at the Baird Boulevard address, as were there two daughters. Also living them was his father, Daniel Carter, then 89 years of age. Peter Carter was still living at 1507 Baird Boulevard as late as 1947.