With emergency services, sometimes there is never a dull moment. For example, the month of May turned out to be a never-dull month. Hats off to the many volunteers who respond to these calls, day or night, and always find a way to mitigate a disaster.
Friday, May 3, was the scheduled night for rope rescue refresh training. It is always good to get your hands dirty (so to speak) once in a while to keep our skills fresh and at the top of our minds. When you are on an emergency scene, it is never the time to try and remember whether something goes inside or outside or if a water knot is the right knot for a certain type of support. At any rate, these updated skills are best deployed without having to think.
We were called to the Rainbow Lake area as part of a search-and-rescue. Despite their best efforts, members of the Signal Mountain Fire Department quickly found the first family member underwater but were not able to revive her. It took a larger team to search for the other family member who went underwater in an attempt to save the girl who first slipped and went underwater. This was a tragic event for the families involved and a reminder to all who participated that not all the emergencies we encounter end with a happy result.
But, some do end with much better results. After a night of training, we were called the next day to assist in the rescue of a missing person. A family reported that they had become separated from a child while hiking near the Middle Creek trail head on Suck Creek Road. With the help of Hamilton County Emergency Services, Hamilton County STARS, Signal Mountain Fire Department, and the Hamilton County EMS and Sheriff’s Department, the juvenile was located unharmed and successfully reunited with the family. These outcomes are the reason we train so we can have more good results for our own peace of mind.
If any of you reading this column find this interesting and think you may be able to help contribute to our success, we certainly invite your participation to become a volunteer. At WRES, we are not just a fire department - we are a comprehensive provider of emergency services. As a volunteer, you are not required to know everything about everything, but you could learn a lot about one thing that we do and be a valuable member of our team. This could be firefighting, emergency medical response, technical rope rescue or search-and-rescue, and some people are just great at arriving at a scene and providing support. It all helps.
If you would like to know more, stop by our Station One at 2100 Taft Highway any Thursday night at 6:30 p.m., call us at (423) 886-5974 and leave a message or send a note of inquiry to [email protected]. We would be happy to answer all your questions. But, as always, if you have an emergency of even think you might be having an emergency, always call 911 for the fastest response.
Friday, May 3, was the scheduled night for rope rescue refresh training. It is always good to get your hands dirty (so to speak) once in a while to keep our skills fresh and at the top of our minds. When you are on an emergency scene, it is never the time to try and remember whether something goes inside or outside or if a water knot is the right knot for a certain type of support. At any rate, these updated skills are best deployed without having to think.
We were called to the Rainbow Lake area as part of a search-and-rescue. Despite their best efforts, members of the Signal Mountain Fire Department quickly found the first family member underwater but were not able to revive her. It took a larger team to search for the other family member who went underwater in an attempt to save the girl who first slipped and went underwater. This was a tragic event for the families involved and a reminder to all who participated that not all the emergencies we encounter end with a happy result.
But, some do end with much better results. After a night of training, we were called the next day to assist in the rescue of a missing person. A family reported that they had become separated from a child while hiking near the Middle Creek trail head on Suck Creek Road. With the help of Hamilton County Emergency Services, Hamilton County STARS, Signal Mountain Fire Department, and the Hamilton County EMS and Sheriff’s Department, the juvenile was located unharmed and successfully reunited with the family. These outcomes are the reason we train so we can have more good results for our own peace of mind.
If any of you reading this column find this interesting and think you may be able to help contribute to our success, we certainly invite your participation to become a volunteer. At WRES, we are not just a fire department - we are a comprehensive provider of emergency services. As a volunteer, you are not required to know everything about everything, but you could learn a lot about one thing that we do and be a valuable member of our team. This could be firefighting, emergency medical response, technical rope rescue or search-and-rescue, and some people are just great at arriving at a scene and providing support. It all helps.
If you would like to know more, stop by our Station One at 2100 Taft Highway any Thursday night at 6:30 p.m., call us at (423) 886-5974 and leave a message or send a note of inquiry to [email protected]. We would be happy to answer all your questions. But, as always, if you have an emergency of even think you might be having an emergency, always call 911 for the fastest response.