Walden Ridge Emergency Services Unveils New Rescue Vehicles | Local News | local3news.com

News Reporter

The Wilderness Rescue truck is customized to handle confined space and rope rescues, including those in wooded and harsh terrain.

Walden Ridge Emergency Services showcased a long-awaited addition to their fleet: two custom-built vehicles to respond to emergency situations more efficiently.

The team covers a 38.5-square-mile-district and can respond to up to three calls in a day. Until now, they’ve always relied on one vehicle to carry out multiple operations. The additions of the Ford-550 6.7L Turbo diesel trucks will eliminate that issue.

They said they’ve received an increase in calls over the years due to the recent growth of the area, such as the addition of bike trails and parks, along with a population increase. This makes it challenging to respond to multiple emergency situations at once.

“If they were deployed to a multiple-day emergency, it took away all of our rescue equipment, because they had to take the single truck that had all the rescue equipment on it,” says David Roddy, Chief Operating Officer of Hamilton County.

One of the two new vehicles will replace an outdated rescue truck, and the other they designed specifically for wilderness rescue.

Jim Gault, Deputy Chief of Walden’s Ridge Emergency Services, says the two trucks will allow them to diversify the way they carry their equipment. While both vehicles carry out rescue operations, each serves a different purpose.

The Wilderness Rescue truck is customized to handle confined space and rope rescues, including those in wooded and harsh terrain. Gault says it’s a light-duty rescue truck with hydraulic equipment, and it will be available to use for Hamilton County and Tri-State Mutual Aid.

“We have seen an increase of wilderness/rescue calls resulting from out-of-town hikers and bikers visiting our Tennessee State Parks within our fire district, says WRES Deputy Chief, Jim Gault. “This truck was designed for rescues in the Appalachian Mountains where the terrain is thick, muddy and built to be rugged and multi-functional.”

This truck will have:

Two titanium stokes baskets with rope and medic bags along with mainline and belay system bags

High-angle rescue hardware and rescue wheel used with stokes basket operations

Electronics for Search and Rescue Operations along with GPS systems in a weather sealed compartment

Backpacks for rescue personnel

Portable Warn Zeon winch which can be hooked into any of the four anchor points on all sides of the truck

Their multifunctional truck responds to all fire, medical and rescue operations and will be stationed at one of their two locations. Roddy says he and the team assembled all of the equipment necessary for these rescue operations and custom-build the vehicle suited to those needs.

The truck will carry:

Four self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) and four spare bottles mounted on a sliding tray allowing easy access for firefighters

Fire Suppression and EMS equipment

Tool compartment with two sliding shelves where tools can be mounted vertically conserving storage space

Extrication equipment in a single compartment with a pull-out tray providing rapid deployment of the tools

Portable winch that can be removed from truck if needed

Power tools and saws

The process took three years and $575,000 in funding. A portion of the funding came from a one-time grant from the county, but around $400,000 of the expenses can be attributed to donations from the area’s residents.

Gault says he owes the addition of the vehicles to the community and their generosity.

News Reporter