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| Joint Training Exercise in Hamilton County CHATTANOOGA, TENN – On Saturday, July 11, 2009, several agencies in Hamilton County gathered for the final day of a training exercise. Several recruits from different agencies experienced their live burn and instructor trainees from those agencies and others received their final instruction at the same time. The house that firefighters trained in and eventually burned to the ground was donated by the Brainerd Hills Church of God and was immediately adjacent to the church. Pastor Dwight Henderson spent the day with several other church members and local residents watching firefighters train in the house. Pastor Henderson said that the church needed to do something with the house and it was too expensive to renovate it. He came up with the idea of donating it to the fire department and was very pleased to see the results of the donation. By eventually burning the house to the ground the fire service was saving the church a significant expense to demolish the house and of course reaped the benefits of having a house to train in and burn. After spending several days prepping the house and the grounds, firefighters gathered early on Saturday morning to finalize preparations and then trained the rest of the morning doing several live fire evolutions inside the house. Once training was completed and all safety measures put into place the house was burned to the ground. Agencies participating in the exercise were Chattanooga Fire Department, Hamilton County Emergency Services, East Ridge Fire Department, Red Bank Fire Department, Sequoyah Volunteer Fire Department, Dallas Bay Volunteer Fire Department, Lone Oak Volunteer Fire Department, Highway 58 Volunteer Fire Department and South End Volunteer Fire Department. Medics from Hamilton County EMS were on stand by throughout the day and Chattanooga Hamilton County Rescue Squad provided much needed rehab. |
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