Chattanooga firefighters hot stuff in music video

Get thrilled, Chattanooga, your rookie firefighters can move like the Gloved One.

photo Contributed Photo Chattanooga Fire Academy graduates dance to "Thriller" in this screen grab from a video their website.

The evidence? A video of a training session showing 24 Chattanooga Fire Academy graduates hoisting ladders and rolling stretchers, then a blast of robot funk - the opening bars to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" - and dancing firefighters in full yellow gear.

"You never know when you might have to dance your way up out of a situation," recent fire academy graduate Brenton Davenport said. "Always good to be versatile in everything."

Much like the ghouls and zombies that creep through Jackson's career-defining music video from 1983, the firefighters converge in military lockstep, wiggle their hips and spray their imaginary fire hoses.

"Some of the guys struggled, so I let them do whatever they wanted," said Chattanooga Fire Department spokesman Bruce Garner, who documents the academy experience for each class.

The crew doesn't have a Jackson stand-in - the three women and 21 men had equal roles - but each firefighter has at least one eye-catching moment, with some gliding across the concrete like hockey players over ice.

The idea got a lukewarm response at first.

"It was a lot of, 'You want me to put out fires, jump into burning buildings, rip cars apart - and you also want me to dance?'" Garner said. "But then they rocked."

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