Water rescue training held on Chickamauga Lake

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) – A large-scale training event was held on the Tennessee River Thursday morning. 

Water training exercises were held by multiple agencies, including the Chattanooga Fire Department.

The goal of this exercise is to prepare our first responders for water rescues.

They also received help from the Nashville Fire Department’s Water Rescue Team and their helicopter.

Chattanooga firefighters on a rescue boat collaborating with a Nashville Fire helicopter to simulate water rescues on Chickamauga Lake.

That team simulated victims stranded in water, using Chickamauga Lake as a body of water. First responders said it prepares them for the next time they have to deal with flooding.

Captain Terry Knowles, Special Operations Chief for the Chattanooga Fire Department, said, “What I like seeing is what we’re going to learn from this. Especially the communication part of it if there is a disaster. The communication between our city and the state agencies, and then bringing in the help that we need, and then just building all these relationships with these agencies that we work with. Just to show what everybody can do in the state of Tennessee, so if anything happens anywhere in the state, the citizens know that they have agencies that can deal with it and help them out and be there in a moment’s notice.”

TEMA and the National Guard were also a part of the training exercise.