Trio of fire departments come together in Claxton for swift water training

CLAXTON, Ga. (WTOC) -With swift water currents getting even more dangerous during the peak of hurricane season, three fire departments set out to train in preparation.

Evans County, Richmond Hill and Pembroke’s fire stations used two sites to simulate life-saving situations.

Deputy Fire Chief Brian Croft has been on the front lines, with two recent flooding events in Evans County considered to have a 1% chance of happening. He shared some advice to avoid the worst case scenario in dangerous currents.

“If you get caught in swift water, swing yourself around to the outside current and try to get to the hill, don’t fight against the current, go with it and go at an angle and go with the stream,” Croft said.

This isn’t the first time these departments have gone out to prepare for swift currents.

“This is the second class we’ve been in, a lot of these people going on to do dive training, some of them will focus more on boats, running the boats, and then all of us that are in this class will continuously train every year to make sure we maintain a level of readiness,” said Richmond Hill’s captain Roland Evans.

The group traveled to both Lake Gartrell Lake and Canoochee River, bringing a grant-awarded boat and a firetruck in order to use for ladder rescues. Croft said that their water equipment had been recently given due to two 100-stage floods (a flood with a 1% chance of happening within a calendar year) occurring in Evans County.

The new equipment has been used for these simulations and will look to provide aid during potential floods or hurricanes.