RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Friday marked the end of a three-day rescue team exercise on the James River, as seven Central Virginia fire and EMS teams trained together to improve speed and communication during water rescues.
On Friday, a water exercise at Brown’s Island consisted of three different parts — a grid search rescue in flat water, a rope exercise to practice pulling a victim out of a paddle craft and finally, putting the rescuers in the water.
This training exercises comes after the creation of a new regional partnership to enhance water rescue responses. The Regional River Response group includes the fire departments from Henrico, Chesterfield, Goochland, Hanover, Hopewell, Powhatan, and Richmond.
Jeffery Segal, assistant chief for the Richmond Fire Department, said that since the James River stretches almost 350 miles, crews are not always going to respond to water rescues within their division, and will often work with other teams.
“Even though it may happen in Richmond, it could extend down into Chesterfield, Henrico,” Segal said.
According to Henrico Fire Deputy Chief of Operations Jim Courtney, planning efforts started when two women drowned at Bosher’s Dam dam in 2022. The intense four-day rescue mission made first responders realize more training was needed for water rescues.
“We were in the water approximately four days, long days, looking for the two girls that we lost,” Courtney said. “We eventually found both of them, and I think we just decided regionally the dangers out there in the water, and to our community, and to our first responders, that we needed to bolster our response.”
Courtney said in the future, the Regional River Response plan focuses on increased public awareness, long-term training opportunities, enhancements to equipment and using existing technology more frequently in rescues.
