A person needs more than navigational skills or medical training to join a search-and-rescue team.
“You have to have a willingness to drop everything for a stranger in need,” says Brad Tipton, captain of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Rescue Service.
And, he adds, to join CHCRS, “you have to be willing to do it for free.”
CHCRS is a volunteer first-responder organization that provides specialized services such as cave, cliff, swift-water and ground search and rescues. In addition, the nonprofit offers emergency rehabilitation services to other first responders. Through mobile units, the goal of the latter is to provide relief – food, water and places to sit, for example – to on-scene police and firefighters.
“When Patten Towers caught on fire (in March), firefighters were on scene for the better part of eight to nine hours. They can only be inside for so long before the chief has to force them out to rehab,” Tipton explains. “We were there to help get them refreshed so they could go back in.”