By Adam Crisp
The Chattanooga Times Free Press
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Chattanooga workers purposely tossed a car into a wood-frame house Thursday, damaging the building’s structure in several spots.
It wasn’t “Civil Servants Gone Wild,” but part of a test to prepare the region’s firefighters for disasters.
Firefighters are called to do more than just douse blazes with water, so their skill set must be diverse, fire officials said.
“Some people may think all we do is fight fires, but we handle much more than just that,” said Lt. Jonathan Lehman, instructor for Chattanooga Fire Department’s Urban Search and Rescue School. “When there is a crime, you call the police, but for every other emergency, you are going to call the fire department.”
On Thursday, Chattanooga firefighters devised an exercise to mimic what would happen when a vehicle slams into a building and traps people inside.
The goal was to first stabilize the structure, then remove the two pretend victims.
Vehicles frequently crash into buildings, firefighters said. There were at least three such crashes in Chattanooga in the last year, Lt. Lehman said.
Crashing a car into a house was the second Urban Search and Rescue training exercise in recent years.
The first, which took place in 2006, was paid for with a $1.2 million federal grant and involved Chattanooga firefighters learning from their New York City counterparts how to rescue people from collapsed structures.
This week’s training session involved about 30 firefighters from 10 Southeast Tennessee counties.
Firefighters said the training exercise will help them back home.
“I’ve had some urban search-and-rescue training already, but this is much more in-depth,” said Wes Goss, a Bradley County firefighter. “I’ll be able to tell other firefighters about what I learned, and we’ll use this training in a variety of situations.”
During eight years on the Bradley County force, Mr. Goss said he’s seen three accidents similar to the one simulated Thursday.
Copyright 2009 Chattanooga Publishing Company